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iwas  ofle  emanating  from  tne  corporauon 
'Of  Dubiin.  This  Irritated  O'Connell,  and 
;at  a  meetlns  in  January,  1815,  he  al-' 
luded  to  thla  j)etition  a&  coming  ttam. 
"the  beggkrly  corporation  of  Dublin." 
■The"  Expression  was  harmless,  and  It  is 
:hard  to  conceive  why  an  Individual  ipem- 
her  should  h«ive  regarded  It  as  personally 
■applying  to  himself.  , 
;  Yet  this  was  precj-wly  what  qne  of 
;fhem,  lyEstere,  did;,  t^'early  life  he  had 
served  a*  a  petty  officer  In  the  navy,  and 
Jiad  vroft  a  considerabl<fe  reputation  for 
pereonal  bravery.  Besides,  he  had  per- 
sonally opposed  the  very  petition  which 
'how  raised  O'Connell'a  ire.  Unfortu- 
nately he  was  In  rather  embarrassed  cir- 
cumstances; and  either  because  he  hoped 
to  improve  his  position  by  attacking  a 
man  personally  objectionable  to  the  Gov- 
ernme'nt,  or  because  of  his  sensitiveness 
to  hlBv  position,  he  felt  called  upon  to 
resent;  the  wordJs. 

O'Connell's  surprise  on  opening  D'EJs- 
tere's  letter  requiring  a  retraction  may 
be  more  easily  imagined  than  described. 
Retraction  was,  of  course,  out  of  the 
question,  and  all  that  he  felt  it  incum- 
bent on  him  to  say  by  way  of  explana- 
tion was  that,  while  the  corporation 
doubtless  contained  estimable  individu- 
als, the  conduct  of  the  corporation  itself 
was  so  notoriously  hostile  to  the  Catho- 
lics that  their  private  opinions  must 
necessarily  be  confounded  In  the  acts  of 
the  general  body. 

This  explanation  did  not  satisfy  D'Es- 
tere,  but  instead  despatched  another  let- 
ter, yirhich,  however,  O'Connell  returned 
ttmread.  This  was  on  Jan.  27.  Three 
4ays  elapsed  without  D'Estere  taking 
any  further  steps;  but  on  the  31st  a 
rumor  got  abroad  that  he  was  going  to 
horsewhip  O'Connell.  The  whole  city  was 
excited  over  the  affair,  especially  when 
it  turned  out  that  D'Ei^icre  had  actually 
appeared  in  the  Four  Courts  with  a  whip 


(^ 


^^'Til 


<y€0.*rNELi'S  '^Ura*  ■WITH  rrESTEKa. 

in  hw  hand,  but  d  failed  to  find  O'Con- 
nell. As  ior  the  .itter,  he  continued  to 
fro  about  liis  busin   <;a  as  usual. 

l^arly  next  mori:  ?,  however.  Sir  Ed- 
ward Stanley,  ai.  iig  as  D'Estere's 
f;i'>n<l.  called  on  0'<  nnell,  and  was  bj- 
h.im  i-.ferrerl  to  Majv  McNamara,  who 
Moni!  tly  fixed  the  hou'-  for  meeting  for 


D'Bstere;  fell  to  the  ground.  The  wd 
was  not  at  first  expected  to  prove  fa 
But  on  returning  home  O'Connell  > 
trayed  ^reat  uneasiness.  "I  fear  hf 
dead,"  Ihe  remarked;  **but  I  nfed  ; 
and  ftie  ball  must  have  entered  near*  t»t^ 
thigh."  .       '     , 

Next   day  D'Estere   died,   leaving  his 
wife  in  poverty.     Q^ZIonnell,  in  his  sor- 
row, offered  to  setfie  an  income, on  ber.j, 
as  he  said,   "to  share  my  income  ^tli^ 
her."    The  <^er  was  declined,  but  he  pre- 
vailed on  a  daughter  of  the  deceas^  ta 
accept  an  annuity  ^rom  him.  which'  "was 
regularly  paid  till   hjis  death,  and   at  d 
later  period  he  had  the  satisfaction  of 
rendering  valuable  legal  Service  to  th^ 
widow  herself.    Subsequently  he  became 
so    Impressed    with    the    wickedness    of 
dueling  as  to  maJce  a  vow  never  to  fight' 
another. 


JATRJARY  SO^lirilliam  Carleton  Alea, 


THK 


LIFE  AND  SPEECHES 


DANIEL   O'CONNELL,   M.P. 


EDITED  BY  HIS  SON, 

JOHN    O'CONNELL,    M.P. 

KILKENNY  CITY; 

j»DTHOR  OF  "  AN   AROniWRKT  FOR  IRELAND.-  ••  RFPF.AL  DICTIONAR?."   ETC. 


Herp^itsry  bondsmen,  know  ye  not, 
Wli«»  would  he  frep,  themselves  munt  strike  the  blow  !" 

Btrom. 


VOL.    I. 

BOSTON    C3LLEGE    LIBRARY 
CH,:^T[VUT  HILL,  MASS. 

DUBLIN: 

PUBLISHED    BY     JAMES     DUFFY, 

10.  WELLINGTON-QUAY. 

LONDON  :  C.  DOLMAN,  61.  NEW  BOND-STREET. 

1846. 


Purdon,  Brothers,  Sieatn-Press  Printers,  23.  BachelorVwalk. 


205469 


TO 

THE    PEOPLE    OF   IRELAND. 

THE  LOl.'G-OPPSESSED, 
THE   L0NG.Z::DU:RING— THE    PATIZNT— THZ    JAITHJTL— 

THE  NOBLE  IRISH  PEOPLE, 

THIS  OUTTIXE 

SKETCH    OF    THE    LIFE 

a^:d  COLLECTI02:  6j  the 

SPEECHES 

OF    ONE    VvB.0    HJ.3    DZTCTED    THl-T    LIFE 

ai:d  ^ould  "mLLi^rc-LT  ■^ir^  :t 
TO  rRocui%E  i:=.z  e-etrsss  oe  their  CRTEL  "a-ROXGS, 

AND  MAXE  OLD  IRELAND  FREE. 

IS  iiOST  RESPECrETTTT  ZZDICATET.  5Y  THEIR 
VERY  HUMBLE    SERTA^'T, 


JOHN  O'COXXELL. 


ZLingstowi:,  Dvib^ic,  Febraai-y,  I844>. 


PREFACE. 


The  following  Work  was  commenced  with  the  design 
of  presenting,  in  a  single  volume,  a  hasty  sketch  of 
Mr.  O'Connell's  Life,  and  a  collection  of  such  of  his 
Speeches  as  were  delivered,  under  remarkable  circum- 
stances of  the  popular  struggle  in  this  country,  from 
the  period  of  the  Union  to  the  present  time. 

Allusions  to  this  design  and  purpose  will,  therefore, 
be  frequently  met  in  the  earlier  part  of  this  volume  ; 
and  the  evidences  of  an  endeavour  at  brevity  will 
easily  be   detected. 

But  I  had  not  far  proceeded  on  my  task,  when 
from  the  immense  number  of  occasions  of  interest  and 
importance  to  the  popular  cause  on  which  he  had  to 
put  himself  prominently  forward,  I  saw  that  it  would 
be  impossible  to  confine  myself  within  the  original 
limits,  and  had,  accordingly,  to  enlarge  my  plan  as 
the   work   progressed. 

Mr.  O'Connell's  history,  as  a  public  man,   is,  in  fact, 


VI  .  PREFACE. 

the  history  of  the  popular  cause  in  the  times  in 
which  he  has  lived  :  so  unreservedly  did  he  throw 
himself  into  that  cause,  in  obedience  to  impulses  he 
had  been  conscious  of  from  his  earliest  recollection,  and 
continue  in  it  throughout  all  its  vicissitudes,  of  what- 
soever colour  or  description. 

Yet,  it  is  not  pretended,  in  this  Work,  to  supply 
the  desideratum  of  a  complete  and  sufficient  history, 
either  of  his  times  or  of  himself.  That  will  be  the 
work  of  his  own  pen,  whenever  leisure  may  enable  him 
to   carry  out   his   intention    of  so   doing. 

The  collection  of  Speeches,  and  the  general  narration 
which  accompanies  and  connects  them,  have  had  the 
benefit  of  his  revision — a  circumstance  which  will  give 
them   more  value   than   might   otherwise   attach. 

The  only  additional  remark,  by  way  of  preface,  that 
I  think  I  am  called  upon  to  make  is,  that  the  exami- 
nation which  my  undertaking  required  of  our  records 
for  the  last  forty-five  years,  has  more  than  ever  con- 
firmed my  conviction,  of  the  absolute  and  imperative 
necessity  of  our  taking,  by  a  Repeal  of  the  Legis- 
lative Union,  our  affairs  from  out  of  the  hands 
of  a  people  who  have  so  cruelly  mismanaged  them, 
as  have  the  English  during  that  time  ;  and  of  the 
stringent   urgency  of    the  duty   upon  every   Irishman — 


PREFACE.  vil 

high  or  low,  rich  or  poor,  Catholic,  Protestant,  or 
Presbyterian,  if  he  would  fulfil  his  obligations,  not 
only  as  an  Irishman  but  as  a  Christian  man  —  to  work 
incessantly  and  energetically  for  the  restoration  of  his 
country  to  her  proper  rank  among  the  nations  of  the 
earth. 

JOHX  O'COXNELL. 


*         Kingstown,    Dublin, 
February,  1846. 


SKETCH 


LIFE   OF   DANIEL   O'CONNELL,  ESQ.,  M.P. 


Daniel  O'Connell,  of  Darrynane,  in  the  county  of  Kerry,  (a 
gentleman  of  ancient  family  and  independent  fortune,)  died  in  the 
year  1774.  He  left  three  sons  surviving.  The  eldest  of  the 
three,  Maurice  O'Connell,  succeeded  him  in  the  possession  of 
Darrynane,  and  in  the  enjoyment  of  an  estate  which  had  never 
been  forfeited,  situate  in  Glencara,  in  that  county ;  and  also  in 
the  possession  of  several  lands  held  under  what  was  called 
Shelburne  leases — namely,  leases  for  three  lives,  dependent  on 
ninety-nine  years,  renewable  for  ever,  and  having  an  origin  prior 
to  the  enactment  of  the  penal  laws,  and  therefore  not  "  discover- 
able ;"  that  is,  not  liable  to  be  laid  hold  on  by  any  Protestant 
who  chose  to  claim  them. 

The  second  son  was  Morgan  O'Connell,  of  whom  more 
hereafter. 

The  third  son  was  Daniel  O'Connell,  respecting  whom  there 
existed  many  pecrliar  circumstances.  First,  he  was  the  two- 
and-twentieth  chikl  of  his  father  and  mother.  Secondly,  he 
entered  the  French  service  as  a  sub-lieutenant  of  Clare's 
regiment,  at  the  age  of  fourteen,  in  the  year  1759.  Thirdly, 
unaided  by  anything  but  his  inerit,  he  rose  to  the  rank  of  major- 
general.  He  bee  .me  colonel-commandant  of  the  German 
regiment,  in  the  French  service,  of  Salrn- Salm,  of  two 
battalions,  of  twelve*  nv-dred  men  each,  which  he  converted  from 
an  undisciplined  mbn  into  confessedly  the  finest  regiment  in  the 
great  French   camp,  at  Metz,  in  1787.    Fourthly,  he  serve-l  at 

B 


'2  SKETCH    OF    THE    LIFE    OF 

the  siege  of  Gibraltar,  in  1782,  being  then  the  second  lieutenant- 
colonel  of  the  regiment  of  royal  Swedes — the  first  lieutenant- 
colonel  being  the  Count  Fersen,  remarked  for  his  personal 
beauty,  and  his  alleged  intrigues  at  the  court  of  Louis  XVI. 
Fifthly,  Colonel  Daniel  Count  O'Connell — to  which  rank  he 
had  then  arrived — volunteered,  with  one  hundred  men,  as 
marines,  in  the  ship  of  the  French  admiral,  who  vainly  endea- 
voured to  prevent  the  relief  of  Gibraltar  by  Lord  Hood. 
Sixthly,  he  was  severely  wounded  in  the  actual  attack  upon 
Gibraltar,  when  the  French  were  driven  off  by  General  (after- 
wards Lord)  Elliot ;  and  it  was  because  of  the  gallantry  he  then 
displayed,  that  Louis  XVL  conferred  upon  him  the  command 
of  the  regiment  of  Salm-Salm,  already  mentioned.  Seventhly, 
he  was  appointed,  in  the  year  1788,  one  of  the  inspectors-general 
of  the  French  infantry.  He  was  the  actual  author  of  the  system 
of  internal  arrangements  of  the  infantry  forces  now  univer- 
sally adopted  in  all  the  European  armies.  Eighthly,  he  was 
entrusted  in  1789,  by  Louis  XVL,  during  the  first  revolutionary 
violence,  with  the  command  of  ten  thousand  of  the  foreign  troops 
by  which  Paris  was  surrounded — and  the  writer  of  this  sketch 
has  often  heard  him  declare,  that  if  Louis  XVI.  had  permitted 
the  foreign  troops  to  crush  the  Parisian  revolutionary  mobs, 
they  were  both  able  and  willing  to  do  so ;  but  the  humanity  of 
that  benevolent,  but  weak  monarch  prevented  the  making  of  the 
great  experiment  of  suppression.  Ninthly,  he  remained  about 
the  person  of  the  king  as  long  as  it  was  possible  for  personal 
devotion  to  be  of  any  use ;  and  only  emigrated  when  it  was  im- 
practicable to  serve  the  king  by  any  other  conduct.  He  then 
made  the  Duke  of  Brunswick's  campaign,  as  colonel  a  la  suite, 
in  the  regiment  of  hussars,  called  "  De  Berchiny ;"  and,  after 
the  close  of  that  disastrous  campaign,  repaired  to  England, 
where  he  was  principally  instrumental  in  prevailing  on  the 
British  government  to  take  into  their  service  the  officers  of  the 
Irish  Brigade  late  in  the  emplovnient  of  France.  Tenthly, 
there  were  six  regiments  formino-  that  brigade  in  the  British 
service ;  and  the  command  of  one  of  them  >vas  conferred  upon 
him.  Those  regiments  were  exceedingly  ill  treated  by  the 
British  government ;  and  the  officers  (with  the  exception  of  the 
colonels)    were    unceremoniously   put    upon   half    pay.       The 


14 

DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  3 

colonels,  however,  were,  by  stipulation,  entitled  to  their  full 
pay  for  life ;  and  he  accordingly  enjoyed  that  pay,  and  his  rank 
of  colonel  in  the  British  service,  during  the  rest  of  his  life. 
Being  married  to  a  St.  Domingo  lady,  he  returned  to  France 
at  the  peace  of  Amiens,  to  make  his  claims  to  her  estate ;  but, 
on  the  renewal  of  hostilities,  he  was  detained  as  a  prisoner  in 
France  until  the  restoration  of  the  Bourbon  family.  Eleventhly, 
upon  the  accession  of  Louis  XVIII.,  he  was  restored  to  his 
rank  as  general  in  the  French  service,  and  received  his  full  pay 
both  as  a  French  general  and  a  British  colonel,  from  1814  to  the 
downfall  of  Charles  X.,  in  1830.  Having  refused  to  take  the 
oath  of  allegiance  to  Louis  Philippe,  he  lost  his  French  pay  ; 
but  retained  his  pay  as  British  colonel  until  1834,  when  he 
died,  in  his  ninety-first  year. 

To  return  to  Morgan  O'Connell,  of  Carhen,  the  next  elder 
brother  of  the  general.  He  intermarried  with  Catherine,  sister 
of  The  O'Mullane,  of  White  Church,  in  the  county  of  Cork, 
a  most  respectable  and  ancient  Irish  family.  By  her  he  had 
ten  children,  who  lived  to  the  age  of  maturity  ;  viz.,  four  sons 
and  six  daughters.  The  sons  were :  first,  Daniel,  the  subject 
of  this  sketch ;  second,  Maurice,  an  officer  in  the  British  service, 
who  died  at  St.  Domingo,  in  1796 ;  third,  John  O'Connell,  now 
of  Grena,  Esq. ;  and  fourth,  James  O'  Connell,  now  of  Lake- 
view,  Esq.,  both  in  the  county  Kerry,  magistrates  of  the  county, 
living  on  their  estates.  The  daughters  were  :  first,  Mary, 
now  the  relict  of  Jeremiah  M'Carthy,  of  Woodview,  county 
Cork,  Esq. ;  second,  Honora,  who  died,  the  wife  of  Daniel 
O' Sullivan,  of  Reendonegan,  in  that  county,  Esq. ;  third,  Ellen, 
who  died,  the  wife  of  the  late  Daniel  O'Connell,  Esq.,  solicitor- 
at-law;  fourth,  Bridget,  now  the  relict  of  Myles  M' Sweeny, 
late  of  Drounquinney,  Esq. ;  fifth,  Catherine,  now  the  relict 
of  Humphry  Moynihan,  of  Freemount,  Esq.,  both  in  the  county 
Kerry ;  and  sixth,  Ahce,  wife  of  William  Francis  Finn,  Esq.,  of 
Tullyroan,  in  the  county  Kilkenny,  for  many  years  M.P.  for 
that  county. 

Morgan  O'Connell,  the  father  of  the  ten  children  above 
enumerated,  although  a  second  brother,  was  in  the  enjoyment  of 
a  good  income,  derived  from  lands  acquired  by  his  care  and 
industry.     The  first  purchase  which   he  made  in  lands,  he  was 


4  SKETCH    OF    THE    LIFE    OF 

obliged  to  make  through  the  intervention  of  a  trustee ;  and, 
although  the  consideration  was  paid  by  him,  yet  if  the  trustee 
(who,  of  course,  was  a  Protestant)  had  chosen  to  violate  the 
trust,  he  might  have  taken  the  property  to  himself;  or  any  Pro- 
testant in  the  community,  who  chose  to  file  a  "bill of  discovery," 
could  compel  that  trust  to  be  disclosed,  and  could  take  possession 
of  the  estate,  without  repaying  any  part  of  the  purchase-money. 
Such  was  the  state  of  the  law  at  that  period. 

Daniel  O'Connell  was  born  at  Carhen,  situate  about  a  mile 
from  the  present  post-town  of  Cahirciveen,  at  the  head  of  the 
harbour  of  Valentia.  His  birth  occurred  on  the  6th  August, 
1775 — a  year  memorable  by  its  being  that  in  which  the  first 
blood  was  shed  in  the  contest  between  England  and  her  then 
reluctantly-revolted  American  colonies.  The  first  battle — that 
of  Lexington — was  fought  in  the  same  year  with,  and  about 
three  months  prior  to,  his  birth  ;  and  the  battle  of  Bunker's  Hill, 
a  few  weeks  before  that  event.  Thus,  at  the  period  of  his  birth, 
the  great  struggle  that  has  lasted  ever  since  between  democracy 
and  the  aristocratic  spirit  and  class,  had  commenced,  nor  has  it 
yet  terminated  ;  neither  will  it  soon  be  at  an  end.  It,  however, 
dates  its  great  commencement  from  the  year  of  his  birth. 

Mr.  O'Connell's  childhood  and  boyhood  passed  at  Carhen, 
with  the  exception  of  visits — sometimes  of  considerable  length — 
to  Darrynane,  then  the  seat  of  his  father's  elder  brother, 
Maurice  O'Connell,  who,  being  childless  himself,  adopted  his 
nephews,  Daniel  and  Maurice,  and  took,  in  a  great  measure,  the 
charge  of  their  education  upon  himself. 

Mr.  O'Connell's  first  recollection  is  of  an  incident  in  itself 
interesting,  which  occurred  in  the  year  1778,  when  he  was  only 
three  years  old.  It  is  this.  The  celebrated  Paul  Jones,  having 
got  the  command  of  three  French  vessels  of  war  to  cruise  in  the 
Irish  seas  and  the  English  channel,  recruited  amongst  the 
British  and  Irish  seamen  who  were  prisoners  of  war  at  Brest, 
and  who  were  suffering  all  the  then  hideous  tortures  of  a  French 
prison — horrors  which  created  a  pestilence  amongst  the  pri- 
soners. Some  of  them,  partly  to  escape  death  and  partly  by 
compulsion,  took  service  with  Paul  Jones.  A  company  of  the 
Irish  Brigade,  under  the  command  of  Lieutenants  M'Carthy 
and   Stack,  volunteered,  as  marines,  on  board  the  Bonhomme 


DANIEL    OCONNKLL,    ESQ.,    M.T.  5 

Richard,  his  flag-ship.  The  first  land  made  by  Paul  Jones 
upon  his  cruise  from  Brest,  was  the  headlands  of  Kerry.  When 
he  closed  in  with  the  land,  it  fell  a  calm  ;  and,  the  tide  running 
at  the  rate  of  three  or  four  knots  an  hour,  between  the  Skelligs 
rock  and  Valentia  harbour,  the  situation  of  the  vessels  became 
dangerous,  and  the  boats  were  sent  a-head  to  tow  them  out  of 
their  difficult  position.  Tow^ards  dusk,  a  light  breeze  springing 
up,  the  vessels  got  head-way,  and  were  moving  from  the  coast, 
and  signals  were  made  for  the  boats  to  cast  off  and  come  along- 
side ;  but  two  of  the  crews,  consisting  of  some  of  the  Brest 
prisoners,  disregarded  the  signals,  and,  as  the  night  darkened, 
pulled  manfully  for  shore.  They  reached  in  safety  Valentia 
harbour,  pursuit  being  impossible ;  and,  there  being  no  authori- 
ties to  whom  they  could  give  themselves  up,  they  were  hospitably 
received  and  entertained  for  some  nights  by  a  gentleman  of  the 
neighbourhood;  who,  however,  made  use  of  the  time  to  procure 
a  military  guard  from  Tralee,  into  whose  charge  he  delivered 
these  deserters,  much  to  their  surprise  and  indignation. 

Mr.  O'Connell  describes  his  being  taken  in  his  nurse's  arms 
to  see  these  poor  prisoners  marched  away  for  Tralee  ;  and  the 
peculiar  impression  made  on  him  by  one  man,  in  particular,  who 
seemed  the  lawyer  of  the  party,  and  who,  from  the  back  of  the 
grey  nag  he  was  riding,  declaimed  loudly. against  the  injustice 
that  was  being  done  him  and  his  shipmates. 

Paul  Jones,  probably  in  revenge,  made  prisoners  of  some  poor 
fishermen  whom  he  found  at  sea,  off  the  coast,  and  took  them 
with  him,  so  that  they  were  most  unwillingly  present  in  the 
celebrated  action  off  Flamborough  Head,  where  Commodore 
Jones  took  the  British  frigate,  Serapis,  with  the  loss  of  his  own 
ship,  which  sunk  as  he  boarded  the  Serapis.  It  is  a  singular 
fact,  that  Lieutenants  M'Carthy  and  Stack,  who  boarded  with 
their  few  surviving  marines  from  the  tops,  were,  although  the 
most  exposed,  the  only  French  officers  unhurt  in  the  action,  and 
that  one  of  them  (M'Carthy)  died  a  Ueutenant-colonel  in  the 
British  service  ;  and  the  other  (Stack)  died  a  general  in  the  same 
service. 

The  poor  fishermen  were  taken  to  Brest,  where  they  were 
allowed  to  labour  in  the  arsenal,  and  saved  money  by  the  time 
they  were  exchanged.     One  of  these  men  is  but  recently  dead, 


b  SKETCH    OF    THE    LIFE    OF 

at  a  great  age.  He  was  a  native  of  Valentia  island,  by  name 
John  Murphy ;  but  ever  since  his  compulsory  adventure  with  the 
pirate,  down  to  his  latest  day,  was  better  known  by  the  soubriquet 
of  "  Paul  Jones."  Nay,  such  is  the  tenacity  of  the  peasantry  in 
matters  of  nomenclature,  that  his  son,  a  respectable  young 
farmer,  is  now  known  as  "  Young  Paul  Jones,"  and  the  designa- 
tion is  in  a  fair  way  of  being  perpetuated  in  the  country.  The 
father  was  a  man  of  great  industry  and  integrity,  and  died 
wealthy. 

A  poor  old  hedge  schoolmaster,  by  name  David  Mahony,  may 
be  given  to  fame,  as  the  first  person  who  taught  Daniel  O'Connell 
his  letters ;  and  the  story  of  his  achievement  is  not  without  a 
moral  to  those  who  have  the  instruction  of  children.  Happen- 
ing, upon  one  of  his  rounds  in  quest  of  charitable  assistance,  to 
visit  Carhen  House,  he  had  taken  young  "  Dan,"  then  four 
years  old,  upon  his  lap,  and  was  playing  with  him ;  when, 
perceiving  that  the  child's  hair,  which  was  long,  had  got  much 
tangled  from  exercise,  he  took  out  a  box-comb  and  combed  it 
thoroughly,  without  hurting  the  child,  as  the  rough  country 
maids  scarcely  ever  failed  to  do.  In  gratitude  for  exemption 
from  his  usual  torture,  the  child  readily  consented  to  learn  his 
letters  from  the  old  man ;  and  in  the  short  space  of  an  hour  and 
a  half,  learned  the  whole  alphabet  perfectly  and  permanently. 

The  moral  of  this  tale  is,  not  that  you  should  comb  children's 
heads  gently,  in  order  to  ensure  their  learning  quickly ;  but 
that  the  difficulties  of  teaching  them,  can  be  much  lightened  by  a 
little  care  to  conciliate  their  good  will  to  the  task. 

At  the  age  of  thirteen  Mr.  O' Connell  and  his  brother  Maurice, 
a  year  younger  than  himself,  were  sent  to  the  school  of  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Harrington,  a  Catholic  clergyman,  at  a  place  called 
Redington,  in  the  Long  Island,  two  miles  from  Cove — the  first 
school  publicly  opened,  and  held  by  a  Catholic  priest,  since  the 
penal  laws.  At  the  expiration  of  a  year,  the  two  brothers  were 
removed  from  this  school  by  their  uncle  Maurice,  in  order  to  be 
sent  to  the  Continent  to  pursue  their  studies  at  greater  advan- 
tage ;  for  this  purpose  they  were  embarked  in  a  brig  bound  to 
London,  the  captain  of  which  was  to  land  them  at  Dover,  whence 
they  were  to  take  the  packet  to  Ostend. 

The  tide  being"  out  at  Dover  when  the  vessel  arrived,  those 


DANIEL    O  CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  7 

passengers  who  were  in  haste  to  land,  had  to  do  so  through 
the  surf  on  the  open  beach ;  and  Mr.  O'  Connell's  first 
acquaintance  with  England  was  marked  by  a  ducking  in  the 
surf,  the  boat  having  capsized  through  some  mismanagement  in 
beaching  her. 

An  opportunity  offering  in  a  few  days,  the  party  proceeded 
to  Ostend,  and  thence  by  Treykschuyt  and  Diligence  to  Liege, 
where,  however,  a  disappointment  awaited  them.  Mr.  O'Connell 
was  found  to  have  passed  the  age  when  boys  could  be  admitted  as 
students,  and  they  had  to  retrace  their  steps  as  far  as  Louvain, 
there  to  await  new  instructions  from  home. 

The  difference  of  disposition  between  the  two  boys  was  here 
strikingly  shown :  Maurice,  the  younger,  naturally  enough, 
availed  himself  of  his  six  weeks'  unexpected  holydays  (the  inter- 
change of  communications  between  their  then  abiding-place  and 
the  remote  shores  of  Kerry,  requiring  that  interval),  to  indulge 
in  all  a  boy's  vacation  amusements  ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  his 
brother,  feeling  no  relish  for  idleness,  attended  class  in  one  of 
the  halls  at  Louvain  as  a  volunteer,  and  with  such  assiduity, 
that  ere  the  arrival  of  letters  from  home,  for  which  they  were 
waiting,  he  had  risen  to  a  high  place  in  a  class  of  one  hundred 
and  twenty  boys. 

Their  uncle's  new  orders  were,  that  they  should  go  to  St. 
Omer ;  whither,  accordingly,  they  proceeded,  and  remained  a 
year — viz.,  from  early  in  the  year  1791,  till  a  similar  period  of 
1792 — when  they  were  removed  to  the  English  college  of  Douay 
for  some  months. 

Mr.  O'Connell  soon  rose  to  the  first  place  in  all  the  classes  at 
St.  Omer's.  His  two  close  pressing  rivals  have  since,  each  of 
them,  reached  the  highest  grade  of  their  respective  professions. 
The  one  of  them  became  a  Catholic  priest,  and  has  been  for 
many  years  the  Right  Rev.  Dr.  Walsh,  the  venerable  and  most 
esteemed  and  respected  Catholic  bishop  of  the  midland  district 
in  England.  The  other  of  them,  his  beloved  friend  and  relative, 
alas  !  lately  deceased,  Christopher  Fagan,  went  into  the  service 
of  the  East  India  Company,  in  which  he  rose  to  the  rank  of 
general,  and  filled  that  most  important  office  (especially  impor- 
tant in  India),  judge-advocate-general  of  the  Indian  forces. 


8  SKETCH    OF    THE    LIFE    OF 

Such  were  the  fortunes  of  the  three  leading  boys  at  St. 
Omer's,  in  the  year  1791. 

A  letter  from  the  Rev.  Dr.  Stapylton,  president  of  the 
college  of  St.  Omer's,  to  Maurice  O'Connell,  of  Darrynane, 
(uncle  of  the  subject  of  this  memoir,)  contains  a  curious  antici- 
pation, or  (shall  we  call  it  ?)  prophecy.  The  following  is  an 
extract  from  that  letter,  dated  in  January,  1792: — 

"  You  desire  to  have  my  candid  opinion  respecting  your  nephews ;  and  you 
very  properly  remark,  that  no  habit  can  be  worse  than  that  of  tlie  instructors  of 
youth  who  seek  to  gratify  the  parents  of  those  under  their  care,  by  ascribing  to 
them  talents  and  qualities  which  they  do  not  really  possess.  You  add,  that, 
being  only  the  uncle  of  these  young  men,  j'ou  can  afford  to  hear  the  real  truth 
respecting  their  abilities  or  deficiencies.  It  is  not  my  habit  to  disguise  the 
precise  truth,  in  reply  to  such  inquiries  as  yours.  You  shall,  therefore,  have 
my  opinion  with  perfect  candour. 

' '  I  begin  with  the  younger — Maurice.  His  manner  and  demeanour  are  quite 
satisfactory.  He  is  gentlemanly  in  his  conduct;  and  much  loved  by  his 
fellow-students.  He  is  not  deficient  in  abiUties ;  but  he  is  idle,  and  fond  of 
amusement.  I  do  not  think  he  will  answer  for  any  laborious  profession ;  but  I 
will  answer  for  it,  that  he  never  will  be  guilty  of  anything  discreditable.  At 
least,  such  is  my  firm  belief. 

"  With  respect  to  the  elder,  Daniel,  I  have  but  one  sentence  to  write  about 
him,  and  that  is,  that  I  never  was  so  much  mistaken  in  my  life  as  I  shall  be, 
unless  he  be  destined  to  make  a  remarkable  figure  in  society." 

Meantime  all  that  had  given  any  promise  of  good  in  the 
Revolution,  then  progressing  in  France,  was  fast  waning,  and 
becoming  obscured  under  the  thick  gathering  clouds  of  popular 
fury  and  insanity.  The  end  of  the  year  '91  witnessed  the 
disappearance  of  the  last  faint  ray  of  light  from  the  murky 
and  overcharged  political  atmosphere.  Thenceforward  the  soil 
of  France  seemed  given  up  to  fiends  newly  burst  from  their 
caverns ;  and  order,  decency,  morality,  humanity,  Christianity, 
were  at  an  end  in  that  unhappy  land. 

He  were  a  friend  to  France  who  would  take  all  occasions  to 
remind  her  popular  writers,  and  her  people,  of  the  deep  debt  of 
atonement  that  Frenchmen  owe  to  popular  liberty ;  to  wipe 
away  the  memory  of  the  hideous  and  horrible  excesses  with 
which  their  fathers  disgraced  that  sacred  cause,  and  furnished 
arguments  against  it  to  the  exulting  tyrants  of  the  earth. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  times  were  as  perilous  for 
strangers,  as  for  natives ;  especially  English  strangers ;  under 
which  designation  the  unhappy  continental  custom  (now  at  last 


DANIEL    O'CONNEI.L,    ESQ.,    M.P.  9 

beginning  to  be  altered)  of  classing  natives  of  Ireland  abroad, 
caused  Mr.  O'Connell  and  his  brother  to  be  included.  They 
had  to  remain,  however,  at  Douay,  during  several  weeks  of  the 
reign  of  terror,  not  being  able  to  follow  the  example  of  other 
students  in  going  home,  owing  to  the  interruption  and  delay  of 
communications  from  Ireland.  During  this  latter  period  the 
boys  were  several  times  insulted  by  the  soldiery  that  passed 
through  Douay,  on  their  way  to  and  from  the  seat  of  war  on  the 
northern  frontier.  On  an  eminence  just  outside  the  town,  are  the 
traces  of  a  Roman  camp,  attributed  to  Cajsar ;  and  here  thirty-six 
thousand  troops,  the  great  majority  raw  boys,  were  for  some  time 
encamped,  rendering  residence  at  Douay  still  more  dangerous 
and  disagreeable.  "  Little  aristocrats,"  "  young  priests,"  &c., 
were  the  mildest  terms  in  which  the  unbridled  soldiery  saluted 
the  boys  wherever  they  met;  and,  on  one  occasion,  the  soldiers, 
as  they  were  marched  through  the  town,  heaped  the  fiercest 
execrations  and  insults  upon  them. 

At  length  came  the  order,  and  the  funds,  for  the  home  journey. 
On  the  21st  December,  1793,  the  day  the  unfortunate  Louis 
was  beheaded  at  Paris,  the  brothers  set  out  in  a  voiture  for 
Calais,  which  they  reached  early  on  the  morning  of  the  23d; 
not,  however,  without  some  parting  compliments  from  their 
friends,  the  soldiery;  who  went  so  far,  as  several  times  to  strike 
the  head  of  the  vehicle  with  their  musket  stocks.  The  English 
packet-boat,  aboard  of  which  the  boys  proceeded  with  as  little 
delay  as  possible,  was  presently  under  weigh;  and  as  she  passed 
out  of  the  harbour,  Mr.  O'Connell  and  his  brother  eagerly  tore 
out  of  their  caps  the  tricolour  cockade,  which  the  commonest 
regard  for  personal  safety  rendered  indispensable  to  be  worn  by 
every  one  in  France;  and,  after  trampling  them  under  foot,  flung 
them  into  the  sea.  This  boyish  outburst  of  natural  execration 
of  the  horrors  which  had  been  committed  under  that  emblem, 
procured  them  a  few  of  those  sonorous  curses  which  only  a 
Frenchman  can  give,  from  some  fishermen  rowing  past  at  the 
moment,  by  whom  the  cockades  were  rescued  from  the  waves, 
and  placed  in  their  hats  with  all  becoming  reverence. 

It  was  the  packet-boat  which  brought  over  the  intelligence  of 
the  murder  of  the  king.  On  board  that  packet-boat  were  the 
unfortunate  John  and  Henry  Sheares,  whose  tragic  fate,  in  the 


10  SKETCH    OF    THE    LIFE    OF 

year  1798,  is  so  well  known.  To  their  heated  minds  the  revo- 
lution of  France  did  not  bear  the  same  revolting  aspect  that  it 
did  to  others;  and  they  were  loud  in  praise  and  prediction  of  its 
ultimate  tendencies  to  good,  in  despite  of  the  crimes  and  abomi- 
nations marking  its  progress.  The  execution  of  the  unhappy 
Louis  was  freely  canvassed  between  them  and  an  English 
gentleman  on  board ;  and  John  Sheares  boasted  that  he  and 
his  brother  had  been  present;  having  paid  two  national  guards 
for  liberty  to  wear  their  uniform,  and  do  duty  for  them  on  that 
occasion.  "  Good  heavens,  sir,"  said  the  English  gentleman, 
"what  could  have  induced  you  to  desire  to  witness  so;  horrible 
a  spectacle?"     "  Love  of  the  cause,  sir,"  was  the  reply. 

These  misguided  and  mistaken  gentlemen  little  thought  then 
of  the  dark  fate  which  their  wild  theories  were,  ere  many  years, 
to  bring  upon  themselves.  All  was  exultation  and  hope  in  their 
breasts,  as  they  nursed  and  amused  themselves  with  projects  of 
a  realization  in  their  own  country  of  the  liberty  they  believed  to 
have  been  achieved  by  the  people  of  that  which  they  were  leav- 
ing; and  even  from  the  trivial  circumstance  of  a  quick  and  a 
favourable  sea-passage  on  that  day,  differing  as  it  did  from  their 
usual  ill-luck  at  sea,  (having  been  twice  wrecked  before — once 
between  Dublin  and  Parkgate;  and  again,  on  a  former  occasion, 
in  the  straits  they  were  actually  crossing,)  they  drew  an  omen  of 
the  success  they  fancied  to  await  them. 

Very  different,  as  we  have  seen,  from  this  undistinguishing 
and  indefensible  approval,  or  from  any  approval  of  the  French 
revolution,  was  the  disposition  of  mind  of  the  two  schoolboys. 
Their  religious  convictions  and  sympathies,  and  their  personal 
feelings,  alike  indisposed  them  to  view  it,  and  all  belonging  to  it, 
with  other  sentiments  than  those  of  horror  and  loathing.  By  all 
who  were  soundly  Catholic  in  Ireland,  the  same  sentiments  were 
entertained  on  the  subject,  as  the  boys  found  when  they  reached 
home;  and  the  after  occurrences  in  France  tending  rather  to 
increase  than  diminish  this  odium,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at 
that  Mr.  O'Connell  should,  when  in  1794,  he  became  a  law- 
student  in  Lincoln' s-inn,  be  in  a  state  very  nearly  approaching, 
as  he  has  often  said,  to  that  of  a  Tory  at  heart. 

So  strong  and  ardent  were  these  feelings,  that  the  celebrated 
trial  of  Hardy  and  others  having  occurred  about  this  time  (viz., 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  11 

October,  1794),  Mr.  O'Connell  attended  it  daily,  certainly  not 
more  for  the  mere  interest  of  the  thing,  or  benefit  of  the  law 
arguments  to  him  as  a  student,  than  for  the  gratification  of 
anti-revolutionary  feeling,  at  seeing  a  supposed  offender  against 
law  and  social  order  in  a  fair  way  of  receiving  condign 
punishment. 

To  Mr.  O'Connell's  astonishment,  he  found,  ere  the  trial  had 
proceeded  far,  that  his  sentiments  were  fast  changing  to  those  of 
pity  towards  the  accused,  and  of  something  of  self-reproach  for 
having  desired  his  conviction  and  punishment;  and,  each  suc- 
cessive day  revealing  more  and  more  the  trumped-up  and 
iniquitous  nature  of  the  prosecution,  the  process  of  change  in  Mr. 
O'Connell's  mind  ended  by  fully  and  finally  converting  him  to 
popular  opinions  and  principles,  and  confirming  his  natural 
detestation  of  tyranny,  and  desire  of  resisting  it. 

His  recreations,  at  this  stage  of  life,  consisted  of  two  sports, 
of  which  he  is  still  fond — fishing  and  hare-hunting.  His  native 
district  of  Iveragh  aff"ords  abundant  opportunity  of  gratifying 
these  tastes ;  and,  from  early  manhood  down  to  the  present  day, 
the  moment  of  escape  from  the  busy  world,  and  return  to  his 
native  hills,  with  all  their  sports  and  enjoyments,  has  always 
been  looked  forward  to,  and  seized  upon,  with  delight.  The 
interest  of  his  hunts  was,  at  the  time  we  are  speaking  of, 
enhanced  to  him  by  the  difficulty  resulting  from  the  smallness  of 
his  pack ;  but  they  were  all  dogs  of  the  best  breed  and  nose ; 
and  with  them  he  accomplished  feats  that  would  have  done 
credit  to  the  largest  and  best-appointed  kennel.  Often  has  the 
writer  of  these  pages  heard  him  describe,  in  his  own  graphic 
manner,  his  going  out  before  dawn,  to  ensure  that  his  few  hounds 
should  have  the  help  of  the  scent  still  lying;  the  feelings  of  the 
party  as  they  crouched  amid  the  heather,  waiting  for  day;  the 
larks  springing  all  around,  and  the  eager  dogs  struggling  to  get 
free  from  the  arms  that  restrained  them.  A  wager — the  only 
wager  of  Mr.  O'Connell's  life — was  successfully  accomplished  by 
him  with  four  of  these  hounds ;  namely,  the  killing  of  four  hares 
in  three  successive  days.  The  four  hounds,  in  fact,  ran  down 
and  killed  six  hares  in  those  three  days,  and  vaulted  another 
— a  feat  which  he  boasts  no  four  hounds  von-  living  could 
accomplish. 


12  SKETCH    OF    THE    LIFE    OF 

Eagerness  in  the  pursuit  of  this  amusement,  had  nearly  cost 
him  his  life  in  the  eventful  year  1798 — the  same  in  which 
he  was  called  to  the  bar.  After  the  latter  occurrence,  which 
took  place  May  19,  and  before  his  first  circuit,  he  proceeded,  in 
August,  to  Darrynane ;  and  there,  from  a  young  man's  impru- 
dence in  allowing  wet  clothes  to  dry  on  him  while  he  slept  before 
a  peasant's  fire,  after  a  hard  morning's  hunting,  was,  after  the 
further  imprudence  of  attempting,  during  a  fortnight,  to  fight  oflf 
the  fierce  assailant,  prostrated  by  a  most  severe  and  dangerous 
typhus  fever.  Early  in  the  disorder,  he  obtained  a  full  conscious- 
ness of  his  danger ;  and  retained  that  consciousness  in  the  intervals 
of  the  fits  of  delirium  which  came  upon  him  violently  and 
frequently.  Whenever  the  mind  was  able  to  assert  its  self- 
control,  his  most  constant  and  bitterest  thought  was,  that  he  was 
about  to  die,  without  having  been  able  to  gratify  the  instinctive 
and  innate  feeling  which  from  infancy  had  been  uppermost  in  his 
mind — the  feeling  of  craving,  that  it  might  be  his  lot  to  do 
something  for  Ireland ;  and  it  is  a  curious  fact,  that,  in  his 
ravings,  he  was  constantly  heard  repeating  the  following  lines 
from  the  tragedy  of  "  Douglas  :" — 

' '  Unknown,  I  die  ;  no  tongue  shall  speak  of  me : 
Some  noble  spirits,  judging  by  themselves, 
May  yet  conjecture  what  I  might  have  prov'd ; 
And  think  life  only  wanting  to  my  fame !" 

An  affecting  incident  marked  the  turn  of  the  disorder.  When, 
as  he  felt  himself,  and  as  he  appeared  to  others,  he  was  falling 
into  his  agony,  his  head  had  slipped  from  the  pillow,  and  death 
would  have  been  accelerated  by  the  position,  a  cousin  of  his,  who 
was  present,  raised  him  and  supported  him  in  her  arms.  While 
for  a  moment  revived  by  this,  his  father  came  to  the  bedside ; 
and,  after  contemplating  him  for  a  moment  with  agonized  feel- 
ings, addressed  him  with  "Dan,  don't  you  know  me?"  As,  with 
the  last  eff'ort  of  nature,  the  son  pressed  the  father's  hand,  in 
token  of  aff"ectionate  recognition ;  and,  with  the  eff'ort,  the  fell 
disease,  that  had  so  long  been  triumphant,  seemed  to  be,  for  the 
first  time,  arrested — the  crisis  arrived,  twenty-four  hours'  sleep 
followed,  and  thenceforth  began,  and  steadily  continued,  the 
restoration  of  health. 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  13 

Among  the  various  descriptions  and  denominations  of 
yeomanry  corps  formed  on  the  alarm  of  the  deplorable  insurrec- 
tion of  the  year  we  are  speaking  of,  one  of  the  best  got  up,  near 
Dublin,  and  best  equipped,  was  an  artillery  corps  by  the  bar? 
familiarly  called  the  "  Lawyers'  Artillery."  The  uniform  was 
blue,  with  scarlet  facings  and  very  rich  gold  lace ;  and,  in  every 
respect,  their  appointments  were  excellent.  In  this  Mr. 
O'Connell  served  as  a  private  ;  and  earned  his  share  of  the  just 
credit  these  doubly-civilian  soldiers  acquired  by  the  rapid  hand- 
ling of  their  guns — equalling,  as  they  did,  the  regular  artillery 
in  their  management. 

There  has  been  much  blame  thrown  upon  Mr.  O'Connell,  and 
borne  with  most  perfect  equanimity  by  him,  for  speaking  harshly 
of  the  conduct  of  the  United  Irishmen  in  1798.  He  has  done 
so,  because,  to  use  his  own  words,  he  "  could  not  forgive  them 
for  helping  Pitt  to  carry  the  Union." 

This  was,  certainly,  the  effect  and  result  of  their  conduct ; 
different  as  was  their  intention.  The  enemies  of  Irish  rights 
were  thereby  enabled  to  raise  a  clamour  of  fierce  denunciation 
against  all  semblance  of  opposition,  no  matter  how  constitutional 
and  legitimate,  to  the  measures  of  government.  No  class  in 
society  are  more  excitable,  nor  easier  misled  and  hurried  into 
grave  error,  than  the  bulk  of  the  owners  of  property  ;  and  their 
timidity  and  selfish  jealousy  being  artfully  appealed  to  by  the 
minister,  they  speedily  forgot,  or  disregarded,  all  distinction 
between  political  right  and  wrong,  and  encouraged  and  hallooed 
on  the  government  to  repress  popular  opinion  with  the  strong 
hand.  The  hideous  atrocities  of  the  French  republicans  were 
unsparingly  ascribed  in  intention  to  all  who  exerted  themselves, 
no  matter  how  constitutionally,  to  make  a  last  rally  against  the 
plunder  and  degradation  of  Ireland ;  and  many  a  good  man 
shrank  back  from  giving  most  useful  assistance  in  the  struggle, 
through  abhorrence  of  the  foul  imputation,  and  fear  of  being 
confounded  with  the  advocates  of  violence  and  bloodshed. 

Young  as  Mr.  O'Connell  was,  when  these  men  were  in  the 
hottest  of  their  zeal  and  their  hopes,  his  judgment  and  reason 
had  already  moved  him  so  strongly  to  recognise  the  great  prin- 
ciple, which  it  has  been  the  business  and  great  object  of  his  life 
to  propagate  and  establish — the  principle  of  avoiding  all  violence, 


14  _  SKETCH    OF    THE    LIFE    OF 

of  shunning  with  abhorrence  everything  that  could,  even  remotely, 
tend  to  causing  the  loss  of  one  drop  of  human  blood — that  he 
held  aloof  from  the  society  of  the  United  Irishmen,  attending 
strictly  to  his  professional  studies,  though  not  the  less  watching 
closely  each  move  of  the  political  world  at  home  and  abroad  with 
something  of  the  feeling  of  the  sailor,  who,  ere  the  hour  has 
come  for  weighing  anchor,  is  yet  seen  observing  every  change  of 
the  heavens  and  the  ocean,  and  every  vicissitude  of  the  vessels  in 
the  offing,  to  gather  what  warning  he  may. 

Still  ardour,  and  enthusiasm,  and  fearless  devotedness  have 
their  contagion,  especially  with  young  men;  and  Mr.  O'Connell 
might  not  have  altogether  escaped  the  wide-spread  meshes  of 
the  rebellion,  but  for  a  chance  circumstance  which  we  shall 
narrate  as  briefly  as  possible. 

Nearly  a  stranger  in  Dublin,  he  had  the  more  appreciated  the 
hospitality  of  the  few  w^hom  he  did  know ;  and  amongst  these 
was  one,  a  Mr.  Murray,  then  of  Great  George's-street,  at  whose 
house  he  was  a  frequent  guest.  At  a  time  when,  as  is  well 
known,  the  habits  of  society  were,  unfortunately,  of  too  convivial  a 
nature — gentlemen  seldom  leaving  the  dining-room  until  scarcely 
able  to  do  so  of  their  own  motion — Mr.  O'Connell  had,  from  a 
reasoning  as  well  as  a  natural  disinclination  to  the  disgusting 
custom,  more  than  once  incurred  the  not-very-damaging  abuse 
and  reproaches  of  the  common  herd  of  boon  companions.  In  his 
native  county  he  had  been  the  first  to  strike  a  blow  at  the 
abominable  practice  of  locking  the  door  after  dinner — insisting 
at  a  jovial  meeting,  where  it  was  thus  sought  to  restrain  him,  on 
having  the  door  unlocked ;  which  was  done  after  considerable 
opposition  and  angry  remonstrance. 

On  one  occasion,  however  (perhaps  the  only  one  of  his  life), 
at  the  table  of  Mr.  Murray,  already  mentioned,  about  the  month 
of  March,  of  the  year  1798,  he  was  betrayed,  by  the  heat  of 
a  political  discussion,  into  some  forgetfulness  of  his  constant 
habit  of  temperance ;  and  took  what  to  him  was  inconvenient, 
although  to  the  well-soaked  brains  of  most  of  his  compeers 
it  would  have  been  of  no  consequence.  Returning  that 
night  full  of  self-reproach  and  annoyance  at  the  unaccustomed 
sensations  he  had  subjected  himself  to,  his  interposition 
to  save  a  wretched  female  from  the  blows  of  some  cowardly 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  15 

ruffians,  in  the  garb  of  gentlemen,  drew  upon  him  the  attack  of 
the  whole  party ;  but  for  awhile  (owing  to  his  great  strength 
and  activity)  with  signal  discomfiture  to  themselves,  three  being 
knocked  down  by  him  in  succession.  However,  one  of  the  latter, 
on  getting  up,  came  behind  and  pinioned  him,  and  so  he  was  over- 
powered— receiving,  while  in  this  defenceless  position,  and  ere 
he  could  free  himself,  several  blows  on  the  face,  by  which  it  was 
so  disfigured,  as  to  render  a  few  days'  confinement  to  the  house 
advisable.  While  under  this  irksome  restraint,  his  landlord, 
a  most  respectable  tradesman  (well  known  long  afterwards  to  the 
Dublin  theatre-going  folk  as  Regan  the  fruiterer),  then  pur- 
veyor to  the  Castle  of  Dublin,  took  the  liberty  of  his  years,  and 
permitted  but  respectful  familiarity,  to  warn  his  young  lodger 
from  committing  himself  politically — detailing  the  dark  hints  rife 
in  the  purlieus  of  the  Castle,  of  the  deep  and  fearful  game  the 
government  were  playing  in  allowing  the  insurrection  to  mature, 
while  they  kept  themselves  ready,  and  had  it  in  their  power  to 
lay  hands  upon  its  leaders  at  any  moment. 

The  truth  and  value  of  his  anxious  warnings  did  not  Ions' 
delay  to  appear.  Within  a  very  brief  period  after  this  occurrence 
(quite  long  enough,  however,  to  have  given  occasion  for  incur- 
ring the  danger,  but  for  the  warning),  arrests  were  made ;  and, 
amongst  others,  he  whose  virtues  and  true  nobility  of  soul  would 
have  shed  a  lustre  upon  any  cause,  was  made  prisoner,  and 
wounded,  when  so,  by  the  base  slaves  of  a  base  government. 
Their  dastard  cruelty  was  yet  merciful,  as  Lord  Edward 
Fitzgerald  died  in  prison  from  his  wounds,  and  so  escaped  the 
felon  hands  of  the  executioner. 

We  are  not  writing  a  history  of  this  melancholy  period.  Even 
at  the  distance  of  forty-five  years,  the  retrospect  is  one  of  the  most 
fearfully  exciting  that  can  well  be  made.  The  blood  boils,  and 
mounts  to  the  brain  at  the  thought  of  it.  The  madness  of  the 
people — the  worse  madness  of  their  leaders — the  hateful  and 
'Unchristian  policy  of  the  government — the  licence  given  to  a 
party  in  the  state  (to  the  Orangemen  of  high  and  low  degree)  to 
work  their  will  in  exasperating  the  wretched  people  (licence  used 
until  some  of  the  worst  scenes  of  the  anarchic  and  anti-social 
revolution  of  France  were  paralleled)  :  all  these  present  a  picture 
that  makes  the  mind  glad  to  turn  away  to  anything — even  to  the 


16  SKETCH    OF    THE    LIFE    OF 

present  miseries  of  our  country ,  but  still  more  gladly  to  her  bright 
and  self-earned  hopes  of  the  future,  rather  than  dwell  upon  that 
which  even  yet  might  madden  and  unfit  us  for  the  coming  times 
of  peace  and  conciliation. 

Let  us,  therefore,  return  to  Mr.  O'Connell's  personal  history. 

The  fact  is  too  well  known  to  need  our  repetition,  that  Mr. 
O'Connell's  first  public  effort  was  made  against  the  measure  of 
the  Union.  At  the  period  when  that  nefarious  measure  was 
agitated,  the  Catholic  body  had,  for  the  first  time  since  the 
Revolution  of  1688,  come  to  be  of  importance  in  the  state, 
and  of  considerable  importance.  A  probability,  exaggerated  by 
the  fears  of  the  minister,  existed,  that  men  of  all  creeds  would 
combine  to  oppose  the  iniquity  he  was  seeking  to  perpetrate. 
The  infamous  wiles,  by  which  he  had  sought  to  win  over  the 
privileged  class  in  the  state,  were,  at  least  to  some  extent,  failing 
to  realize  his  base  expectations.  Despite  the  demoralizing 
influence  of  the  money  then  so  lavishly  expended,  and  the  even 
more  demoralizing  and  corrupting  influence  of  the  long  and  cruel 
ascendancy  which  one  class  of  Irishmen  had  been  given,  and  had 
exercised  over  their  countrymen ;  still  what  remained  of  public 
spirit  in  Ireland  could  not  be  so  utterly  oblivious  of  the  pledges, 
and  achievements,  and  glories  of  1779-1782,  as  patiently  to  suffer 
the  country  to  pass  under  the  Candine  forks,  and  sink  from  her 
high  position  as  an  independent  nation,  into  all  the  debasement 
of  a  miserable  mendicant  province. 

Seldom,  in  the  history  of  the  world,  have  any  set  of  men  been 
so  beset  with  evil  temptations  as  the  Protestants  of  Ireland 
since  the  •  Revolution.  The  gratification  of  every  passion 
and  prejudice  was,  until  of  recent  years,  unreservedly  in  their 
hands.  Place  was  for  them,  power  was  for  them,  emolument 
was  for  them ;  nay,  civil  liberty  and  the  commonest,  as  well  as 
the  more  extended,  rights  of  property  were  exclusively  in  their 
hands.  The  Catholic  was  nothing ;  or,  if  the  phrase  may  be 
used,  was  in  a  condition  worse  for  himself,  than  if  he  had  been 
considered  literally  as  nought.  The  law  recognised  him  ;  but, 
as  was  well  expressed  by  an  English  judge  in  Ireland,  he  "  was 
well  known  to  the  law  only  for  the  purpose  of  punishment." 

Drufjffed  and  intoxicated  with  the  deleterious  influences  to 
which  they  were  thus  subjected,  it  cannot  be  matter  of  wonder 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.  P.  17 

that  human  nature  had  yielded ;  and  so  the  spectacle  was  pre- 
sented, throughout  a  century,  of  men  discharging,  doubtless,  all 
the  duties  of  private  life,  so  far  as  regarded  their  own  families, 
connections,  and  class,  with  the  average  fidelity  and  rectitude ; 
and  yet  constantly,  steadily,  and  placidly,  lying  under  the  guilt, 
and  enjoying  the  profits  of  the  terrible  guilt  in  which  they  were 
involved  by  their  concurrence  in  the  penal  laws  against  the 
great  bulk  of  their  fellow-countrymen. 

Still  even  from  this  moral  lethargy,  worse  than  death,  men  could 
be  woke  up,  and  the  Protestants  of  Ireland  were  aroused 
towards  the  end  of  the  century.  Too  much — fatally  too  much 
of  the  old  spirit  remained,  leavening  the  glorious  efforts  of 
1779-1782.  Exclusion  still  was  to  be  maintained;  Catholics 
were,  indeed,  recognised  as  Irishmen,  but  as  Irishmen  of 
lesser  stamp,  of  limited  birthrights,  of  inferior  destiny.  The 
honoured  names  of  Flood  and  Charlemont  stood  against  the 
political  and  civil  rights  of  their  countrymen.  But  in  good  or 
evil,  men  seldom  make  a  bold  advance,  but  that  the  onward 
impulse  will  continue.  Crippled  as  the  Irish  parliament  still 
was,  subject  yet  to  the  worst  influences  of  bribery  and  corruption; 
the  echoes  of  '82  did  not  quite  die  away  within  its  walls 
without  swelling  the  cry  for  Catholic  relief.  Under  its  influence 
measures  of  relief  were  passed,  of  which  the  effect,  of  course, 
was,  to  render  the  Catholic  body  of  more  weight  in  the  state, 
and  that  weight  they  readily  and  heartily  threw  into  the  national 
scale.  The  patriotic  party  in  parliament  and  throughout  the 
country,  found  their  hands  strengthened  by  the  concessions  they 
had  themselves  originated,  and  they  naturally  inclined  to  persevere 
in  a  course  already  so  productive  of  benefit  to  their  views. 
The  English  party  correspondingly  resolved  to  nullify  this  new 
source  of  strength  to  their  opponents.  Nothing  offered  of 
efficiency  for  this  purpose,  save  the  long-meditated,  but  (on 
account  of  its  difficulties)  long-delayed  measure  of  the  union. 
Only  by  the  entire  deprivation  of  her  legislative  powers  could 
Ireland  be  hindered  of  the  blessings  that  would  be  ensured, 
were  the  new-born  spirit  of  mutual  conciliation  and  assistance 
among  her  people  to  be  allowed  time  to  strengthen  and  pro- 
gress. 

It  is  well  known  that  by  the  joint  agency  of  the  foul  means  of 

c 


18  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

i 

a  rebellion,  fomented  just  long  enough  to  give  excuse  for 
outrageous  military  violence,  and  of  gross  pecuniary  corruption, 
the  English  party  succeeded,  and  Ireland's  liberties  and  hope 
were  crushed  and  overthrown.  The  success,  however,  was  not 
easy.  The  rebellion  had  well  nigh  been  a  revolution.  The 
bribery  design  failed  with  many.  The  spirit  of  nationality  did 
not  pass  away  without  a  struggle.  Protestants  yet  rallied, 
despite  the  potent  appeals  to  their  fears,  passions,  prejudices, 
most  intimate  interests — gallantly  they  rallied  for  Ireland;  and 
thanks  to  their  noble  efforts,  there  was  more  than  one 
occasion  when  the  fabric  the  minister  had,  with  such  base 
zeal,  and  painful  and  degrading  toil,  sought  to  erect  over 
the  landmarks  of  Irish  liberty,  seemed  about  to  tumble  upon, 
and  crush  him  in  its  hideous  ruin. 

In  this  peril  the  bright  idea  struck  him  of  seeking  to  bribe 
the  despised  Catholics  also,  since  the  proud  and  pampered 
Protestant  party  would  not  all  consent  to  sell  their  birthright. 
Efforts  were  made  to  this  end,  and  were,  in  a  few  quarters,  suc- 
cessful to  an  extent,  that  it  would  be  uselessly  painful  to  describe. 
The  great  bulk  of  the  Catholics,  indeed,  gave  unmistakable 
symptoms  of  non-acquiescence,  but  they  were  unaccustomed  to 
act  together,  or  almost  at  all  in  public.  Some  rallying 
point,  some  centre  of  union,  was  wanting  to  prevent  them 
from  being  misled,  or  seduced  and  divided;  in  short,  some 
leader  was  wanting — and  the  time  being  come,  the  leader 
appeared. 

Circumstances  of  relationship,  and  affection  should  not  be 
held  absolutely  to  limit  the  expression  of  opinion  on  the  acts  of 
a  public  man.  The  step  was  a  bold  one — a  very  bold  one — which 
Mr.  O'Connell  now  took.  Terrorism  was  the  order  of  the 
day — tyrannous,  intolerant,  brutal  terrorism.  To  be  suspected 
of  national  feeling  was  then  (and  for  some  years  afterwards)  as 
dangerous  in  Ireland,  as  the  suspicion  of  aristocratic  tendencies 
had  recently  been  in  France.  Even  Protestants,  the  favoured 
race,  had  come  under  the  ban  of  persecution  on  this  score;  several 
of  them — one  illustrious  above  all — one,  the  purest  spirit  of  his 
time — almost  of  any  time — the  gifted,  the  ardent,  the  enthusi- 
astic, the  devoted  Fitzgerald,  had  been  made  to  pay  the 
penalty  of  life  for  loving  Ireland.     The  constitution  existed  but 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.  P.  1^ 

in  name — law  had  no  operation,  save  as  it  might  forward  the 
views  and  intents  of  the  wretches  in  authority- — dissent,  or  even 
silent  non-acquiescence  in  the  ultra  notions  then  afloat  con- 
cerning royal  prerogative  and  power,  was  little  short  of 
sedition  ;  open  remonstrance  against  the  will  of  the  government 
was  nearly  confounded  with  open  treason.  At  such  a  time,  for  a 
Catholic,  a  young,  unknown,  unfriended  Catholic,  to  come 
forward  to  oppose  the  government,  words  could  not  speak  the 
indignation  of  the  satelhtes  of  the  latter  at  such  unheard-of, 
undreamed-of  audacity ;  nor,  in  truth,  adequately  describe  the 
danger  in  which  he  was  placing  himself. 

Of  his  own  frequent  descriptions  in  speeches,  letters,  &c., 
of  the  state  of  those  times,  one  of  the  most  succinct  and  impres- 
sive is  in  his  report,  of  April,  1840,  to  the  newly-formed  Repeal 
Association,  on  the  "  means  by  which  the  Union  was  carried." 

"The  second  means  for  carrying  the  union  were — 'the 
deprivation  of  all  legal  protection  to  liberty  or  life — the  familiar 
use  of  torture — the  trials  by  courts-martial — the  forcible 
suppression  of  public  meetings — the  total  stifling  of  public 
opinion — and  the  use  of  armed  violence.' 

"  All  the  time  the  Union  was  under  discussion,  the  Habeas 
Corpus  act  was  suspended — no  man  could  call  one  hour's 
liberty  his  own. 

"All  the  time  the  Union  was  under  discussion,  courts- 
martial  had  power  unlimited  over  life  and  limb.  Bound  by 
no  definite  form  or  charge,  nor  by  any  rule  of  evidence,  the 
courts-martial  threatened  with  death,  those  who  should 
dare  to  resist  the  spoliation  of  their  birthrights. 

"  There  was  no  redress  for  the  most  cruel  and  tyrannical 
imprisonment.  The  persons  of  the  king's  Irish  subjects  were  at 
the  caprice  of  the  kinfs  ministers.  The  lives  of  the  king's  Irish 
subjects  were  at  the  sport  and  ichim  of  the  bogs,  goung  and  old, 
of  the  motehj  corps  of  English  militia,  Welsh  mountaineers, 
Scotch  fencibles,  and  Irish  geomanry.  At  such  a  moment  as 
that,  when  the  gaols  xoere  crammed  tvith  unaccused  victims,  and 
the  scaffolds  icere  reeking  icith  the  blood  of  untried  wretches — 
at  such  a  moment  as  that,  was  it,  that  the  British  minister 
committed  this  act  of  spoliation  and  robbery,  which  en- 
riched England  but  little,  and  made  Ireland  poor  indeed. 


20  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

"  Besides  the  suspension  of  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act,  and 
the  consequent  insecurity  to  personal  liberty — besides  the 
existence  of  courts-martial,  and  the  consequent  insecurity  of 
human  life ;  besides  all  these,  actual  force  was  used — meetings 
of  counties,  duly  convened  to  deliberate  on  the  measure,  were 
dispersed  by  military  force.  It  was  not  at  Maryborough  or 
Clonmel  alone,  that  the  military  were  called  out,  horse,  foot, 
and  artillery,  to  scatter — and  they  did  scatter — meetings 
convened  by  the  legal  authorities,  to  expostulate,  to  petition 
against  the  Union.  Force  was  a  peculiar  instrument  to  suppress 
all  constitutional  opposition. 

"  Why  should  we  dwell  longer  on  this  part  of  the  subject, 
when  in  a  single  paragraph  we  have,  in  eloquent  language,  a 
masterly  description,  which  easily  supersedes  any  attempt  of 
ours?  Here  are  the  words  of  Plunket — '  I  will  be  bold  to 
say,  that  licentious  and  impious  France,  in  all  the  unrestrained 
excesses  that  anarchy  and  Atheism  have  given  birth  to, 
has  not  committed  a  more  insidious  act  against  her  enemy, 
than  is  now  attempted  by  the  professed  champion  of  civilized 
Europe  against  Ireland — a  friend  and  ally — in  the  hour  of 
her  calamity  and  distress.  At  a  moment  when  our  country  is 
filled  with  British  troops — whilst  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act  is 
suspended — whilst  trials  by  courts-martial  are  carrying  on  in 
many  parts  of  the  kingdom — while  the  people  are  made  to 
believe  that  they  have  no  right  to  meet  and  deliberate,  and 
whilst  the  people  are  palsied  by  their  fears,  at  the  moment 
when  we  are  distracted  by  internal  dissensions — dissensions 
kept  alive  as  the  pretext  of  our  present  subjugation,  and  the 
instrument  of  our  future  thraldom ! ! !  Such  is  the  time  in 
which  the  Union  is  proposed.' " 

Undeterred  by  all  this,  the  Catholics  of  Dublin  assembled  in 
the  Royal  Exchange  Hall,  on  the  13th  January,  1800,  to 
petition  against  the  Union;  and  Mr.  O'Connell,  who  had  taken 
the  chief  part  in  the  preliminary  arrangements,  maintained  it 
during  the  proceedings.  Ere  these  had  gone  far,  the  measured 
tramp  of  soldiery  was  heard,  and  presently  the  red-coats  ap- 
peared under  the  main  portico,  facing  Parliament-street.  The 
noise  of  their  approach,  and  the  sudden  halt,  with  the  clashing 
of  the  muskets  as  they  were  grounded  on  the  flag-stones,  struck 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.  P.  21 

terror  into  many  a  timid  heart,  and  caused  a  sensible  diminution 
along  the  outskirts  of  the  meeting;  but  the  main  body  stood  firm, 
while  Mr.  O'Connell,  and  a  few  of  the  principal  gentlemen, 
advanced  to  meet  the  officer  in  command  of  the  soldiers.  This 
was  the  Major  Sirr,  whose  name  occurs  so  frequently  in  the 
dark  records  of  the  internal  government  of  Ireland  at  that 
unhappy  time.  He  inquired  the  objects,  &c.,  of  the  assemblage, 
and  evidently  disappointed  at  the  peace,  and  order,  and  readi- 
ness to  submit  to  the  law,  which  he  found  prevailing,  reluctantly 
suffered  the  meeting  to  proceed. 

The  first  in  our  collection  of  Mr.  O'Connell's  speeches,  is 
that  delivered  by  him  on  the  occasion  of  this  meeting.  It  was 
his  maiden  speech;  and  the  opinion  he  therein  expressed,  to  the 
efi'ect  that  the  old  penal  laws,  in  their  worst  enormity,  were  pre- 
ferable to  that  concentration  of  penal  enactments  which  practi- 
cally exists  in  the  Union  statute,  is  the  opinion  that  he  entertains 
to  the  present  day  : — • 

Counsellor  O'Connell  rose,  and  in  a  short  speech  prefaced  the 
resolutions.  He  said  that  the  question  of  Union  was  confessedly  one 
of  the  first  importance  and  magnitude.  Sunk,  indeed,  in  more  than 
criminal  apathy,  must  that  Irishman  be,  who  could  feel  indifference 
on  the  subject.  It  was  a  measure,  to  the  consideration  of  which  we 
were  called  by  every  illumination  of  the  understanding,  and  every 
feeling  of  the  heart.  There  was,  therefore,  no  necessity  to  apologize 
for  the  introducing  the  discussion  of  the  question  amongst  Irishmen. 
But  before  he  brought  forward  any  resolution,  he  craved  permission 
to  make  a  few  observations  on  the  causes  which  produced  the  neces- 
sity of  meeting  as  Catholics — as  a  separate  and  distinct  body.  In 
doing  so,  he  thought  he  would  clearly  show  that  they  were  justifiable 
in  at  length  deviating  from  a  resolution  which  they  had  heretofore 
formed.  The  enlightened  mind  of  the  Catholics  had  taught  them  the 
impolicy,  the  illiberality,  and  the  injustice  of  separating  themselves 
on  any  occasion  from  the  rest  of  the  people  of  Ireland.  The  Catholics 
had  therefore  resolved,  and  they  had  wisely  resolved,  never  more  to 
appear  before  the  public  as  a  distinct  and  separate  body  ;  but  they 
did  not — they  could  not  then  foresee  the  unfortunately  existing  cir- 
cumstances of  this  moment.  They  could  not  then  foresee  that  they 
would  be  reduced  to  the  necessity  either  of  submitting  to  the  dis- 
graceful imputation  of  approving  of  a  measure  as  detestable  to  them, 


22  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

as  it  was  ruinous  to  their  country ;  or  once  again,  and  he  trusted  for 
the  last  time,  of  coming  forward  as  a  distinct  body. 

There  was  no  man  present  but  was  acquainted  with  the  industry 
with  which  it  was  circulated,  that  the  Catholics  were  favourable  to 
the  Union.  In  vain  did  multitudes  of  that  body,  in  different  capa- 
cities, express  their  disapprobation  of  the  measure ;  in  vain  did  they 
concur  with  others  of  their  fello\Y-subjects  in  expressing  their  abhor- 
rence of  it — as  freemen  or  freeholders — electors  of  counties  or  inha- 
bitants of  cities — still  the  calumny  was  repeated  ;  it  was  printed  in 
journal  after  journal ;  it  was  published  in  pamphlet  after  pamphlet  j 
it  was  circulated  with  activity  in  private  companies  ;  it  was  boldly 
and  loudly  proclaimed  in  public  assemblies.  How  this  clamour  was 
raised,  and  how  it  was  supported,  was  manifest — the  motives  of  it 
were  apparent. 

In  vain  had  the  Catholics  (individually)  endeavoured  to  resist  the 
torrent.  Their  future  efforts,  as  individuals,  would  be  equally  vain 
and  fruitless :  they  must  then  oppose  it  collectively. 

There  was  another  reason  why  they  should  come  forward  as  a 
distinct  class — a  reason  which  he  confessed  had  made  the  greatest 
impression  upon  his  feelings.  Not  content  with  falsely  asserting,  that 
the  Catholics  favoured  the  extinction  of  Ireland,  this  their  supposed 
inclination  was  attributed  to  the  foulest  motives — motives  which 
were  most  repugnant  to  their  judgments,  and  most  abhorrent  to  their 
hearts.  It  was  said  that  the  Catholics  were  ready  to  sell  their 
country  for  a  price,  or,  what  was  still  more  depraved,  to  abandon  it 
on  account  of  the  unfortunate  animosities  which  the  wretched  temper 
of  the  times  had  produced.  Can  they  remain  silent  under  so  horrible 
a  calumny!  This  calumny  was  flung  on  the  whole  body — it  was 
incumbent  on  the  whole  body  to  come  forward  and  contradict  it ; 
yes,  they  will  show  every  friend  of  Ireland,  that  the  Catholics  are 
incapable  of  selling  their  country ;  they  will  loudly  declare,  that  if 
their  emancipation  were  offei-ed  for  their  consent  to  the  measure — even 
were  emancipation  after  the  union  a  benefit — they  would  reject  it 
with  prompt  indignation.  (This  sentiment  met  with  approbation.) 
"  Let  us,"  said  he,  "  shov/  to  Ireland,  that  we  have  nothing  in  view 
but  her  good  ;  nothing  in  our  hearts  but  the  desire  of  mutual  forgive- 
ness, mutual  toleration,  and  mutual  affection ;  in  fine,  let  every 
man  who  feels  with  me  proclaim,  that  if  the  alternative  were 
offered  him  of  union,  or  the  re-enactment  of  the  penal  code  in  all 
its  pristine  horrors,  that  he  would  prefer  without  hesitation  the 
latter,  as  the  lesser  and  more  sufferable  evil ;  that  he  would  rather 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,  M.P.  23 

confide  iu  the  justice  of  his  brethren,  the  Protestants  of  Ireland, 
who  have  already  liberated  him,  than  lay  his  country  at  the  feet  of 
foreigners."  (This  sentiment  was  met  with  much  and  marked  ap- 
l^robation.)  With  regard  to  the  union,  so  much  had  been  said — so 
much  had  been  written  on  the  subject,  that  it  was  impossible  any 
man  should  not  before  now  have  formed  an  opinion  of  it.  He  would 
not  trespass  on  their  attention  in  repeating  arguments  which  they 
had  already  heard,  and  topics  which  they  had  already  considered ; 
but  if  there  was  any  man  present  who  could  be  so  far  mentally 
degraded,  as  to  consent  to  the  extinction  of  the  liberty,  the  constitu- 
tion, and  even  the  nam6  of  Ireland,  he  would  call  on  him  not  to 
leave  the  direction  and  management  of  his  commerce  and  property 
to  strangers,  over  whom  he  could  have  no  control. 

He  then  concluded  by  moving  the  resolutions,  which  being 
seconded,  passed  unanimously,  and  the  meeting  broke  up. 

The  following  were  the  resolutions  passed  at  the  meeting. 
They  were  drawn  up  by  Mr.  O'Connell  himself: — 

"  Royal  Exchange,  Dublin,  January  13,  1800. 

"At  a  numerous  and  respectable  meeting  of  the  lloman  Catholics  of  the  city 
of  Dublin,  convened  pursuant  to  public  notice,  Ambrose  Moore,  Esq.,  in  the 
chair — 

"  Resolved — '  That  we  are  of  opinion  that  the  proposed  incorporate  Union  of 
the  legislature  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  is,  in  fact,  an  extinction  of  the 
liberty  of  this  country,  which  would  be  reduced  to  the  abject  condition  of  a 
province,  surrendered  to  the  mercy  of  the  minister  and  legislature  of  another 
country,  to  be  bound  by  their  absolute  will  and  taxed  at  tbeir  pleasure  by  laws, 
in  the  making  of  wMch  this  country  would  have  no  efficient  participation 
whatsoever.' 

"Resolved — 'That  we  are  of  opinion  that  the  improvement  of  Ireland  for 
the  last  twenty  years,  so  rapid  beyond  example,  is  to  be  ascribed  whollj^  to  the 
independency  of  our  legislature,  so  gloriously  asserted  in  the  year  1782,  by 
virtue  of  our  parliament  co-operating  with  the  generous  recommendation  of 
our  most  gracious  and  benevolent  sovereign,  and  backed  by  the  spirit  of  our 
people,  and  so  solemnly  ratified  by  both  kingdoms  as  the  only  true  and 
permanent  foundation  of  Irish  prosperity  and  British  connection.' 

"  Resolved — 'That  we  are  of  opinion,  that  if  that  independency  should  ever 
be  surrendered,  we  must  as  rapidly  relapse  into  our  former  depression  and 
misery ;  and  that  Ireland  must  inevitably  lose,  with  her  hberty,  all  that  she 
has  acquired  in  wealth,  and  industry,  and  civUization.' 

"  Resolved — '  That  we  are  firmly  convinced,  that  the  supposed  advantages  of 
such  a  surrender  are  unreal  and  delusive,  and  can  never  arise  in  fact ;  and  that 
even  if  they  should  arise,  they  would  be  only  the  bounty  of  the  master  to  the 
slave,  held  by  his  courtesy,  and  resumable  at  his  pleasure.' 

"  Resolved — '  That — having  heretofore  determined  not  to  come  forward  any 
more  in  the  distinct  character  of  CathoUcs,  but  to  consider  our  claims  and  our 
cause  not  as  those  of  a  sect,  but  as  involved  in  the  general  fate  of  our  country — 
we  now  think  it  right,  notwithstanding  such  determination,  to  publish  the  pre- 
sent resolutions,  in  order  to  undeceive  our  fellow-subjects  who  may  have  been 


24  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

led  to  believe,  by  a  false  representation,  that  we  are  capable  of  giving  any  con- 
currence whatsoever  to  so  foul  and  fatal  a  project ;  to  assure  them  we  are 
incapable  of  sacrificing  our  common  country  to  either  pique  or  pretension  ;  and 
that  we  are  of  opinion,  that  this  deadly  attack  upon  the  nation  is  the  great  call 
of  nature,  of  country,  and  posterity  upon  Irishmen  of  all  descriptions  and  per- 
suasions, to  every  constitutional  and  legal  resistance ;  and  that  we  sacredly 
pledge  ourselves  to  persevere  in  obedience  to  that  call  as  long  as  we  have  life.' 

"  Signed,  by  order, 

"James  Eyan,  Sec." 

It  was  at  somewhat  of  an  earlier  period  of  the  Union-discus- 
sion that  Mr.  O'Connell  was  one  of  a  supper-party,  at  a  tavern 
in  Dawson-street,  where  a  member  of  parliament,  reproached 
another  member  present  with  having  voted  for  the  Union,  when 
he,  a  much  poorer  man,  had  resisted  the  minister's  solicitations. 
He  appealed  to  "  the  young  gentleman  present,"  whether  it  was 
not  an  unworthy  act.  That  "  young  gentleman's"  opinion  was 
declared  very  soon  afterwards,  however  modesty  and  courtesy 
may  have  then  restrained  his  tongue,  and  forty-five  years  since 
have  shown  it  not  an  opinion  lightly  taken  up. 

Yielding  to  the  obvious  necessity  in  a  sketch,  such  as  this  can 
alone  be,  of  Mr.  O'Connell's  life,  we  pass  the  eventful  period  of 
'98 — 1800,  without  going  into  more  details,  although  necessarily 
leaving  much  of  deep  interest  untouched.  It  is  Mr.  O'Connell's 
intention  to  write  his  own  life,  if  he  can  find  leisure;  and,  in  the 
event  of  his  being  able  so  to  do,  the  more  the  omissions  in  the 
present  sketch,  with  regard  to  details  of  interest,  the  better  for 
the  public. 

The  calamitous  occurrences  of  1803,  found  Mr.  O'Connell 
a  barrister,  already  in  good  practice  for  so  young  a  lawyer.  He 
was  again  summoned  to  bear  his  part  in  the  general  arming 
which  took  place  on  the  breaking  out  of  the  short,  but  most 
disastrous  insurrection  of  that  year,  and  served  in  "  the  lawyers' 
infantry;"  such  being  the  description  of  arm  which  the  bar  then 
chose.  On  two  or  three  occasions,  while  out  on  duty,  he 
incurred  much  risk  himself,  in  preventing  some  of  the  many  acts 
of  wanton  cruelty  which  the  exasperated  citizen-soldiery  were 
only  too  ready  to  commit.  A  member  of  the  attorneys'  corps 
(a  cavalry  corps)  sought  to  cut  down  an  unofi'ending  man,  who, 
frightened  and  defenceless,  was  seeking  only  to  get  out  of  the 
way  of  the  armed  men,  in  whose  presence  he  had  suddenly  found 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.  P.  25 

himself;  Mr.  O'Connell  received  on  the  barrel  of  his  musket  the 
sword-cut  intended  for  the  poor  wretch,  and  the  weapon  was 
deeply  indented  with  the  force  of  the  blow.  For  a  moment,  it 
appeared  likely  that  the  disappointed  and  enraged  attorney 
would  have  turned  his  fury  on  Mr.  O'Connell  himself,  but 
Mr.  WaD-ffet,  afterwards  recorder  of  Cork,  who  was  Mr. 
O'Connell's  sergeant,  coming  up  just  then,  and  briefly  gathering 
the  particulars  of  the  matter,  took  Mr.  O'Connell's  part  effec- 
tively, by  charging  the  horseman  with  his  levelled  halbert,  before 
which  he  was  glad  to  flee,  amid  a  shower  of  violent  reproaches 
from  his  assailant. 

On  another  occasion,  when  posted  as  sentry  near  one  of  the 
canal  bridges,  he  was  ordered  by  an  officer  to  fire  upon  some 
unarmed  country  people,  who  chanced  to  pass  at  the  other  side 
of  the  canal,  at  a  prohibited  hour  of  the  night,  and  he  utterly 
refused.  A  third  time  he  was  in  peril,  when,  being  with  a  party 
who  had  orders  to  search  a  hotel  in  James's-street,  for  suspected 
parties  who  were  thought  to  have  arrived  there  by  the  canal 
boat,  he  had  singly  to  oppose  the  wanton  and  licentious  violence 
of  his  comrades,  who  sought  to  drag  an  inoffensive  stranger  and 
his  wife  from  their  beds. 

His  experience  in  these  sad  times  has  left  an  indelible  impres- 
sion upon  him  of  the  danger  of  entrusting  civilians  with  arms ; 
the  tendency,  in  his  own  words,  that  a  man  has,  "  when  he  has 
arms  in  his  hands,  to  be  a  ruffian,"  being  uncontroll^  by  that 
custom  of  bearing  them  under  strict  restraints  and  practices  of 
long  discipline,  which  makes  the  soldier  patient  and  forbearing. 
The  "  lawyers'  infantry"  were,  of  course,  composed  of  gentle- 
men. The  education  for  the  arduous  profession  of  the  bar  should, 
one  would  have  thought,  have  tended  to  refine  the  mind,  and 
teach  restraint  over  the  brute  impulses;  and  yet,  among 
some,  there  was  a  spirit  of  licence  and  outrage  prevailing, 
that  the  most  reckless  and  disordered  soldiery  could  scarcely 
equal. 

Stricken  down  to  the  earth,  as  Irish  public  spirit  might 
well  have  been,  after  the  distractions  and  disasters  of  1803, 
following  so  close  as  they  did  on  the  monster  catas- 
trophe of  1800,  we  yet  find  the  Catholic  body  so  active 
in  1804,  as  to  have  incurred  the  hostility  of  the  government. 


26  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

In  submission  to  their  proclamation,  the  Catholic  Board  was  dis- 
solved ;  but  only  to  arise  under  another  name,  as  the  "  Catholic 
Committee." 

In  the  succeeding  year  it  was  determined  to  test,  once  more, 
the  sincerity  of  Pitt,  who,  since  his  return  to  office,  had  shown 
no  disposition  to  risk  losing  his  place  again,  as  he  lost  it  in 
1801,  by  attempting  to  redeem  his  Union-promises  to  the 
Catholics,  Lords  Fingall,  Shrewsbury,  Kenraare,  Southwell, 
and  Triraleston,  with  Sir  Edward  Bellew  and  Messrs.  Scully 
and  Ryan,  were  deputed  to  wait  on  him,  with  three  alternatives, 
viz. : — 

1st.  That  he  should  present  the  petition  they  bore,  and 
introduce  a  measure  of  Emancipation. 

2nd.  That  he  should  present  the  petition,  and  pass  a  resolution 
in  favour  of  it.     And, 

3rd.  That  he  should  simply  present,  and  move  it  to  lie  on  the 
table. 

Even  the  last  small  favour  he  refused,  because  of  the 
"  obstacles,"  as  he  said,  "  in  a  certain  quarter." 

These  words  referred,  of  course,  to  the  king,  George  III., 
a  man  whose  natural  narrow-mindedness  and  badness  of  heart, 
had  now  got  the  intensity  of  that  madness,  which,  a  few  years 
later,  openly  declared  itself. 

Notwithstanding  this  discouragement,  the  petition  was  pre- 
sented. Lord  Grenville  had  the  charge  of  it  in  the  upper 
house,  where  his  motion  for  taking  it  into  consideration  was 
rejected  by  178  to  49  ;  and  the  celebrated  Fox  introduced  it  in 
the  lower,  where  the  result  was  similarly  unfavourable  ;  336 
voting^  against  him,  and  but  1 24  on  his  side. 

The  accession  of  the  Whigs  to  power,  on  the  death  of  Pitt,  in 
January,  1806,  gave  new  hopes  to  the  Catholics.  But  with 
those  hopes  there  arose  a  controversy  amongst  them.  The 
"  wait-a-while"  policy,  to  which,  on  the  coming  in  of  the  same 
party  in  1831,  we  were  so  angrily  exhorted,  had  its  advocates 
in  1806,  as  in  the  latter  period.  It  was  said,  "  Do  not  embarass 
the  Whigs — they  are  our  friends — give  them  time — only  let  them 
alone,  and  you  shall  see  what  great  things  they  will  do."  John 
Keogh,  of  Mount  Jerome,  the  old  leader  of  the  Irish  Catholics, 
assisted  the  counsellors  of  this  policy  on  different  grounds.     He 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  27 

argued  that  the  Catholic  body  would  lower  themselves  were 
they  to  be  constantly  petitioning.  That  after  the  manner  in 
which  the  parliament  had  treated  them  in  the  year  just  gone,  it 
would  not  be  becoming  for  them  so  soon  again  to  present  them- 
selves as  humble  petitioners.  That  they  should  wait  in  what 
he  styled  "  dignified  silence,"  till  they  should  see  whether,  under 
the  change  of  government,  there  would  be  a  change  of  parlia- 
mentary policy,  and  how  their  Whig  friends  would  set  about 
reducing  to  practice  their  old  professions  of  good  will. 

Mr.  O'Connell,  however,  could  not  see,  either  then  or  at  the 
subsequent  period  alluded  to,  the  validity  of  any  of  the  arguments 
for  delay.  Quiesence,  in  his  opinion,  would  but  relieve  their  inve- 
terate foes,  in  parliament,  of  the  annoyances  which  they  complained 
of  from  agitation  ;  and  would  tend  still  further  to  dishearten  the 
popular  mind  in  Ireland,  and  dangerously  diminish  what  little 
there  remained  of  hope  for  redress  of  grievances  by  constitutional 
means.  He,  therefore,  however  reluctantly,  had  to  array  himself 
in  opposition  to  Mr.  Keogh ;  and  at  a  meeting  in  the  Assembly 
Rooms,  William-street,  (the  present  place  of  meeting  of  the 
Dublin  Corporation,)  he  succeeded,  a  good  deal  aided  by  Mr, 
Keogh's  accidental  absence  during  a  great  part  of  the  discussion, 
in  carrying  his  own  views.  Mr.  Keogh  returned  to  the  rooms 
just  as  the  meeting  was  dividing  on  Mr.  O'Connell's  motion  for 
petitioning,  and  was  much  annoyed  to*  find  himself  beaten  by 
134  to  110. 

The  first  regularly  reported  debate  of  the  Catholic  body  is  to 
be  found  in  the  Dublin  newspapers  of  January,  1808.  They 
met  at  what  was  then,  and  long  after,  called,  the  "  Exhibition 
House,"  in  William-street — subsequently,  and  at  present,  the 
Corporation  House  of  Assembly — on  Tuesday,  the  1 9th  of 
January,  for,  as  their  announcement  said,  "  the  purpose  of  sub- 
mitting certain  resolutions,  as  well  as  to  consider  the  propriety 
of  presenting  a  petition  to  the  Imperial  Parliament,  praying  the 
removal  of  the  disabilities  under  which  the  body  had  so  long 
and  so  patiently  laboured." 

The  Earl  of  Fingall  was  in  the  chair,  and  the  proceedings 
were  opened  by  Count  Dalton,  who,  after  alluding  to  the  acci- 
dental absence  of  Lord  Gormanstown,  moved  a  resolution, 
expressing  anxiety  to  petition  Parliament  for  a  Repeal  of  the 


28  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

Penal  Laws,  and  declaring  that  to  be  the  "  critical  juncture 
when  such  a  petition  ought,  without  delay,  to  be  transmitted." 

John  Byrne,  Esq.,  of  Mullinahack,  seconded  the  motion,  and 
deprecated  divisions  amongst  the  Catholics. 

Mathew  O' Conor,  Esq.,  of  Mount  Druid,  (the  recently 
deceased  author  of  the  "  Military  History  of  Ireland,")  opposed 
it.     The  following  was  the  substance  of  his  strange  argument : 

"  Although  my  mind  is  forcibly  impressed  with  the 

propriety  and  even  necessity  of  petitioning,  yet,  my  lord,  there  are 
some  gentlemen  for  whose  opinions  I  entertain  the  highest  respect, 
and  on  whose  judgment  I  have  the  utmost  reliance,  who  seem  to  think 
that  this  measure  will  only  expose  us  to  the  mockery  and  insult  of 
men  in  power ;  to  derision,  rejection,  and  defeat ;  that  we  have 
already  done  everything  to  impress  on  the  legislature  and  the  people 
of  Great  Britain,  the  justice,  the  policy,  and  expediency  of  our 
Emancipation  :  and  that  we  should  leave  our  cause  in  the  liands  of 
Providence,  until  a  Grattan,  or  a  Ponsonby,  or  some  other  great 
luminary  shall  dispel  the  clouds  that  now  darken  his  Majesty's 
councils  ;  and  in  the  redeeming  spirit  of  the  constitution,  rescue  us 
from  our  slavery  and  degradation.  I  submit  it,  my  lord,  that  the 
opinions  of  the  gentlemen  to  whom  I  allude,  who  have  great  expe- 
rience in  our  affairs,  should  induce  us  to  pause  and  deliberate ; 
besides,  I  have  it  from  the  most  unquestionable  authority,  that  some 
of  our  best  patriots — some  of  the  greatest  statesmen  in  the  empire — 
men  who  have  the  cause  of  the  Catholics  at  heart  as  much  as  any 
Catholic  who  hears  me,  are  most  decidedly  convinced  that  your  pre- 
ferring your  petition  at  this  moment  will  be  injurious  to  our  interests 
and  will  only  tend  to  distract  the  councils  of  the  empire.  Amidst 
these  conflicting  opinions,  let  me  conjure  you  to  pause  before  you 
precipitate  a  measure  of  such  importance." 

Mr.  O' Conor  went  on  to  complain  of  the  hasty  manner, 
according  to  him,  in  which  the  meeting  had  been  summoned. 
He  further  objected  to  the  particular  resolution  then  before 
them ;  that  it  spoke  of  the  necessity  of  repeal  of  Catholic  disa- 
bilities, and  left  out  mention  of  those  affecting  dissenters,  and 
ended  with  a  protest  against  a  portion  of  the  proposed  petition, 
which  traced  the  origin  of  the  Catholic  restrictions  to  the  reign 
of  William  III  ;  who,  he  declared,  "  cherished  and  protected 
the  Irish  Catholic T     He  moved  an  amendment  to  adjourn. 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  29 

Mr.  Clinch  seconded  the  amendment,  in  a  speech  similar  in 
its  topics  and  tendency. 

The  following  is  the  report  of  Mr.  O'Connell's  speech  on  this 
occasion.  We  extract  it  from  The  Dublin  Evening  Post  of 
Saturday,  January  23,  1808  : — 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  said  he  had  not  intended  to  address  the  meeting. 
His  anxiety  for  the  Catholic  cause  alone  brought  him  forward.  He 
entertained  no  apprehension  about  Catholic  Emancipation,  but  such 
as  might  arise  from  the  conduct  of  the  Catholics  themselves.  He 
could  not  avoid  asking  whether  the  public  time  was  to  be  wasted  by 
childish  and  puerile  objections — objections  that  could  only  manifest  a 
spirit  of  division,  a  feeling  of  party,  and  a  miserable  ambition  of 
leadership.  "With  every  faculty  of  his  mind  awake  to  the  deplorable 
consequences  of  division,  he  should  not  cease  to  exert  all  the  energy 
of  his  soul  to  stimulate  their  minds  to  unanimity.  When  an  adjourn- 
ment was  proposed,  he  expected  to  hear  it  supported  by  some  kind  of 
argument ;  had  any  existed,  it  would  certainly  have  been  put  forward 
by  the  eloquent  gentlemen  who  had  already  spoken  ;  that  they  had 
not  condescended  to  reason  was  to  him  decisive  proof  that  no  plausible 
reason  existed.  No  man  was  more  ready  to  abandon  his  opinion  to 
argument,  but  he  could  not  agree  to  a  measure  fraught  with  mis- 
chievous consequences,  merely  because  one  gentleman  made  a  motion, 
and  another  was  pleased  to  second  it.  He  would  entreat  of  gentle- 
men to  take  a  cautious  view  of  the  precipice  which  opened  to  them, 
should  they  suffer  their  good  sense  to  be  led  away  by  any  motives,  to 
the  adoption  of  the  sentiments  excited  industriously ;  but  for  no  good 
purpose  excited  by  those  who  would  divide  the  Catholic  body. 
Common  sense  alone  ought  to  be  a  sufficient  protection  against  the 
insidious  attempt.  He  begged  to  remind  gentlemen  of  what  had 
taken  place  at  the  last  meeting.  The  generous  feelings  of  Catholics 
had  gained  precedence  of  their  interests,  and  they  had  given  up  the 
presenting  of  their  petition,  in  the  last  session  of  Parliament,  to  their 
gratitude  towards  their  political  advocates.  There  was  another 
reason  for  that  sacrifice  :  a  stupid  and  atrocious  spirit  of  bigotry  had 
been  fomented  in  England,  even  by  ministerial  authority ;  and  the 
Catholics  had  generously  withdrawn  from  the  struggle,  that  they 
might  deprive  British  intolerance  of  even  the  shadow  of  an  excuse. 
He  recollected  with  pleasure  the  splendid  exertions  of  the  ancient 
advocate  of  the  Catholic  cause,  (John  Keogh,)  upon  that  occasion. 
He  it  was  that  had  urged  the  topics  just  alluded  to,  with  irresistible 


30  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

force  ;  and  had  not  an  illness,  now  deeply  to  be  deplored,  prevented 
his  attendance  this  day,  division  in  the  Catholic  body  could  not  be 
feared.  His  powers  of  reasoning  would  have  frightened  away  the 
captious  objections  taken  to  the  resolution,  and  the  Catholics  of  Ire- 
land Avould  have  again  to  thank  their  old  and  useful  servant  for  the 
preservation  of  their  honour,  and  the  support  of  their  interests.  Mr. 
O'Connell  called  the  attention  of  the  meeting  to  the  resolution  which 
had  unanimously  passed  at  the  last  meeting ;  and  by  which  the  care 
of  the  Catholic  petition  was  entrusted  to  the  noble  earl  in  the  chair. 
It  was  committed  to  his  sole  management.  Neither  jealousy  could 
suggest,  nor  folly  express  an  objection  to  the  resolution  which  had  so 
committed  it.  It  was  unnecessary  for  him,  and  indeed  he  had  not  the 
powers  to  put,  in  their  proper  point  of  view,  the  qualities  that 
called  for  and  justified  that  confidence  ;  and  the  presence  of  the  noble 
lord  restrained  the  effusions  of  public  gratitude  for  his  services,  but 
the  impression  was  the  more  deeply  felt  for  being  cherished  only  in 
the  silence  of  the  heart — [Mr.  O'Connell  was  here  interrupted  by 
loud  and  repeated  acclamations  :] — Well,  to  Lord  Fingall  you  com- 
mitted the  sole  management  of  your  petition  ;  he  accepted  the  office ; 
he  was  authorized  to  act  for  himself ;  and  it  is  attempted  to  be  insi- 
nuated to  this  meeting  that  he  has  not  acted  consistently  ;  because, 
when  he  might  have  acted  upon  his  own  suggestions  alone,  he 
anxiously  and  industriously  sought  for  the  advice  and  assistance  of 
every  individual  who  had  heretofore  taken  part  in  the  Catholic  ques- 
tion. This,  under  the  resolution  of  the  last  meeting,  was  an  unneces- 
sary condescension ;  but  assuredly  it  was  the  more  amiable  and  the 
less  liable  to  objection.  Yet  what  was  the  ground  the  supporters  of 
an  adjournment  went  upon  ?  It  amounted  to  this  ;  that  Lord  FingaU 
had  done,  with  advice  and  deliberation,  that  which  he  might  have 
done  instantly  and  alone.  Was  the  calling  of  the  present  meeting 
less  the  act  of  Lord  Fingall,  because  the  opinions  and  judgments  of 
so  many  whom  he  had  consulted  concurred  with  him  in  its  propriety  ? 
To  such  absurdity  were  his  opponents  driven,  that  they  must  support 
the  affirmative  of  the  proposition.  But  it  was  said  that  there  had 
been  no  notice  given  of  the  present  meeting.  It  was  strange  to  hear 
this  objection  urged  by  gentlemen  whose  presence  seemed  to  admit 
that  the  notice  was  sufficient.  However,  what  was  the  fact  ?  Had 
not  that  meeting  been  announced  in  all  the  Dublin  papers  more  than 
ten  days  previously  ?  It  could  not  be  denied  that  it  had  been  so 
announced ;  still  a  pretext  was  left,  and  they  had  been  gravely  told 
that  it  was  true  the  announcement  of  the  meeting  liad  been  published, 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,  M.V.  31 

but  that  it  was  published  in  form  of  a  paragraph,  and  not  of  an 
advertisement.  Here  then  it  stood  admitted  that  it  was  not  for  sub- 
stance, but  mere  matter  of  form,  that  the  Catholic  body  was  to  be 
divided.  One  would  imagine  that  division  was  a  good  thing,  when 
so  flimsy  a  pretext  was  resorted  to,  to  produce  it.  He  trusted  that 
the  gentlemen  themselves  would  abandon  their  opposition,  when  they 
saw  the  question  put  in  this,  its  proper  light.  The  Catholics  of  every 
part  of  Ireland  had  been  consulted :  their  sentiments  as  to  the  pro- 
priety of  petitioning  had  been  requii'ed  by  letter.  Numerous  answers 
had  been  received  from  the  most  respectable  persons  in  all  the 
counties,  who  all  concurred  in  this  one  opinion,  that  the  petition 
should  be  forwarded  without  the  smallest  delay.  In  some  parts  the 
Catholics  had  already  gone  further — meetings  had  been  held  in  the 
cities  of  Cork  and  Waterford,  and  resolutions  to  that  effect  entered 
into  ;  nay,  the  petition  had  not  only  the  good  wishes  of  our  liberal 
and  enlightened  Protestant  brethren  of  Ireland,  but  some  of  them  had 
expressed  their  sentiments  by  a  public  resolution  ;  he  alluded  to  that 
of  the  nobility  and  gentry  of  the  county  of  Tipperary.  Their  con- 
duct, patriotic  as  it  was  amiable,  useful  as  well  as  benevolent,  was 
the  theme  of  general  admiration.  He  regretted  that  he  could  not 
speak  of  it  in  terms  according  with  the  gi-atitude  of  his  heart.  It 
reminded  him,  however,  of  that  affectionate  attention  and  care  for 
the  rights  of  Irishmen,  warmed,  though  not  created,  by  the  benevo- 
lent recommendation  of  our  beloved  sovereign,  which  has  induced  the 
Irish  Protestants  of  the  present  generation  to  break  the  fetters  of  the 
Catholic,  and  totally  to  emancipate  the  Presbyterian — a  wise  and 
magnanimous  policy,  which  would  have  long  since  restored  the 
Catholic  to  complete  freedom,  had  their  cause  and  their  country  been 
left  in  the  hands  of  Irish  Protestants  (loud  and  repeated  applause.) 
Under  those  circumstances,  nothing  but  disunion  among  themselves 
could  ever  retard  the  Catholic  cause.  Division,  while  it  rendered 
them  the  object  of  disgust  to  their  friends,  would  make  them  the 
scorn  and  ridicule  of  their  enemies.  He  was  ready  to  admit  that  the 
present  administration  were  personal  enemies  of  the  Catholic  cause  ; 
yet  if  the  Catholics  continue  loyal,  firm,  and  undivided,  they  had 
little  to  fear  from  the  barren  petulance  of  the  ex-advocate,  Perceval, 
or  the  frothy  declamations  of  the  poetaster,  Canning — they  miglit 
meet  with  equal  contempt  the  upstart  pride  of  the  Jenkinsons,  and 
with  more  than  contempt  the  pompous  inanity  of  that  Lord  Castle- 
reagh,  who  might  well  be  permitted  to  hate  the  country  that  gave 
him  birth,  to  her  own  annihilation.     He  was  also  free  to  confess  that 


32  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

he  knew  of  no  statute  passed  since  the  Union,  which  had  for  its 
object  to  increase  the  trade,  or  advance  the  liberties  of  Ireland  ;  but 
he  thought  it  impossible,  if  the  Catholics  persevered,  with  undivided 
efforts,  in  their  loyal  and  dutiful  pursuit  of  Emancipation,  that  any 
administration  could  be  found  sufficiently  daring  in  guilt  to  stand 
between  them  and  the  throne  of  their  father  and  sovereign  ;  and  most 
calumniously  and  falsely  use  his  name  to  raise  obstacles  in  the  way 
of  good  subjects  seeking  to  become  free  citizens.  He  did,  therefore, 
conj  ure  the  gentlemen  to  give  up  their  opposition  ;  he  respected  their 
talents,  and  however  convinced  of  their  mistake,  could  not  doubt  the 
purity  of  their  motives.  They  must  see  that  their  arguments  against 
the  resolution  were  confined  to  the  ridiculous  opposition,  in  fact, 
against  the  noble  lord,  for  his  having  condescended  to  ask  advice 
before  he  acted ;  and  to  the  equally  frivolous  difficulty  objected  to 
the  form  of  the  notice  for  calling  the  meeting.  Was  it  possible  that 
rational  beings  should  govern  their  conduct  by  such  arguments  in  the 
serious  pursuit  of  freedom  ?  They  were  sons,  and  might  dearly  love 
the  parents  who  gave  them  birth — let  them  recollect  that  it  was  for 
their  rights  that  the  petition  was  framed :  they  were  brothers,  and 
should,  if  they  felt  the  endearing  impulses  of  fraternal  affection,  sacri- 
fice party,  and  of  course  mere  forms  and  ceremonies,  in  a  struggle  for 
obtaining  the  rights  of  their  brethren  :  they  were  parents,  and  all  the 
sweet  charities  of  life,  combined  in  favour  of  the  children  who  looked 
up  to  them  for  protection.  It  was  the  liberties  of  those  children  the 
present  petition  sought — would  they  postpone  for  an  hour  that  sacred 
blessing  ?  Could  they,  from  any  motive,  thwart  the  progress  of  those 
who  sought  it  ?  He  knew  that  was  impossible — and  he  hoped,  there- 
fore, there  would  be  no  division." 

The  result  of  the  debate  was  a  withdrawal  of  the  amendment, 
and  the  unanimous  carrying  of  the  resolution  to  petition. 

Although  much  of  very  intimate  interest  to  the  Catholic  body 
occurred  both  at  home  and  abroad,  and  their  agitation  was  con- 
stantly kept  up  under  one  form  or  another,  during  the  remainder 
of  the  year  1808,  and  the  course  of  1809,  there  was  nothing  (the 
Veto  question  excepted,  to  which,  however,  there  will  be  a  future 
occasion  for  full  reference)  that  need  delay  us,  in  this  sketch 
of  Mr.  O'Connell's  life,  from  coming  to  the  year  1810,  when 
the  second  national  occasion  occurred,  (the  first  having  been 
that  we  have  recorded,  at  the  Union),  for  his  being  brought 
forward  as  the  mouthpiece  of  the  bulk  of  the  Irish  Catholics. 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  33 

Before  proceeding,  however,  to  notice  the  occasion  alluded 
to,  it  is  not  out  of  place  to  glance  at  his  private  history. 

In  his  answer  to  Lord  Shrewsbury's  attack  upon  him,  in  the 
year  1842,  there  is  from  his  own  pen,  a  brief,  but  striking 
picture  of  the  every-day  current  of  his  life.  The  period  referred 
to  includes,  indeed,  many  years  later  than  those  included  in  the 
space  we  propose  to  hurry  over,  viz.,  from  1806  to  1810, 
but  the  description  applies  strictly  in  its  details.  The  reader 
will  find  the  following  passage  at  page  19  of  the  pamphlet  pub- 
lished by  Machen,  D'Olier-street,  in  1842. 

In  answer  to  a  taunt  at  his  receiving  the  O'Connell  rent,  he 
says: — 

"I  will  not  consent  that  my  claim  to  '  the  rent'  should  be  misun- 
derstood. That  claim  may  be  rejected,  but  it  is  understood  in 
Ireland. 

"  My  claim  is  this : — For  more  than  twenty  years  before  Emanci- 
jiation,  the  burthen  of  the  cause  was  thrown  upon  me.  I  had  to 
arrange  the  meetings — to  prepare  the  resolutions — to  furnish  replies 
to  the  correspondence — to  examine  the  case  of  each  person  complain- 
ing of  practical  grievances — to  rouse  the  torpid — to  animate  the  luke- 
warm— to  control  the  violent  and  the  inflammatory — to  avoid  the 
shoals  and  breakers  of  the  law — to  guard  against  multiplied  treachery 
— and  at  all  times  to  oppose,  at  every  pei'il,  the  powerful  and  multi- 
tudinous enemies  of  the  cause. 

"  To  descend  to  particulars.  At  a  period  when  my  minutes 
counted  by  the  guinea — when  my  emoluments  were  limited  only  by 
the  extent  of  my  physical  and  waking  powers — when  my  meals  were 
shortened  to  the  narrowest  space,  and  my  sleep  restricted  to  the 
earliest  hours  before  dawn  ;  at  that  period,  and  for  more  than  twenty 
years,  there  was  no  day  that  I  did  not  devote  from  one  to  two  hours, 
often  much  more,  to  the  workin^^  out  of  the  Catholic  cause ;  and  that 
without  receiving,  or  allowing  the  offer  of  any  remuneration,  even  for 
the  personal  expenditure  incurred  in  the  agitation  of  the  cause  itself. 
For  four  years  I  bore  the  entire  expenses  of  Catholic  agitation,  with- 
out receiving  the  contributions  of  others  to  a  gi-eater  amount  than 
seventy-four  pounds  in  the  whole.  "Who  shall  repay  me  for  the  years 
of  my  buoyant  youth  and  cheerful  manhood  ?  "Who  shall  repay  me 
for  the  lost  opportunities  of  acquiring  professional  celebrity ;  or  for 
the  wealth  which  such  distinction  would  ensure  ?" 

D 


34  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

111  one  of  those  entertaining  sketches  of  the  Irish  bar  which, 
some  two  or  three  and  twenty  years  ago,  Mr.  Shiel  and  Mr. 
William  Henry  Curran,  at  present  a  Commissioner  of  the 
Insolvent  Court,  supplied,  to  a  London  periodical,  Mr. 
O'Connell's  manner  of  life,  in  the  times  referred  to  by  himself 
in  the  foregoing  extract,  is,  if  we  may  use  the  word,  outlined 
with  considerable  vigour  and  effect.  The  silent  and  absorbed 
vigil  for  hours  before  the  dawn  ;  the  dimly-lighted  study  ;  the 
sign  of  our  salvation  hanging  pictured  against  the  wall ;  the 
motionless  form  beneath  it,  with  head  bent  over  the  voluminous 
law-papers  scattered  in  profuse  disorder  around ;  the  same 
hermit-like  figure,  a  few  hours  later,  transformed  into  the 
bustling  barrister,  keeping  contending  attorneys  at  a  run,  to 
match  his  mountaineer  rate  of  going,  as  he  hurried  to  the 
courts.  The  third  transformation  late  in  the  afternoon,  when 
the  man  of  legal  points,  and  formal  precedents,  and  abstruse 
arguments,  would  be  found  the  merry,  fearless,  rollicking  agitator, 
declaiming  in  a  popular  meeting,  and  now  playing  on  the 
laughing  faculties,  and  anon  on  the  deepest  and  most  powerful 
feelings  and  passions  of  his  auditory,  with  a  master  hand ; 
as  he  assailed,  with  ridicule,  the  petty  despots  of  the  day,  or 
depicted,  with  terrible  vividness,  the  wrongs,  the  miseries,  the 
oppressions  of  Ireland  and  her  people.  Such  were  the 
leading  features  of  Mr.  Shiel's  sketch ;  and  they  were  true  to 
nature. 

There  were  matters  that  Mr.  Shiel  did  not  attempt  to 
depict — the  inner  details  of  his  life — the  friendships,  of  which 
he  was  the  centre  and  the  soul — the  unspeakable  domestic 
affections  that  gathered  around  his  hearth,  and  which,  with 
one  most  mournful  exception,  are  yet  to  be  found  there 
thronging. 

The  interval  of  time  which  has  now  elapsed,  since  the  death 
of  one  who  made  the  happiness  of  his  existence  as  she  did  that  of 
her  family,  has  not  sufficiently  softened  the  deep  grief  of  her  loss, 
to  render  practicable  any  attempt  to  describe  that  happiness. 
The  union  was  one,  indeed,  of  love.  Mary,  the  daughter  of  Dr. 
O'Connell,  of  Tralee  (a  distant  relative  of  his  own,  a  man  of 
high  talent  and  character  in  his  profession),  small  as  her  fortune 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,   M.P.  35 

was,  became  the  choice  of  his  heart,  at  a  time  when  his  uncle, 
who  had  been  the  guardian  of  his  youth  and  on  whom  his  best 
hopes  depended,  was  urgent  with  him  to  address  himself  to  either 
of  two  well-dowered  young  ladies  on  whom  the  old  gentleman 
had  fixed  his  eye.  This  circumstance  required  secrecy  to  be 
for  a  while  observed,  till  time  should  be  given  for  anger  to  cool 
down;  and,  accordingly,  Mr.  O'Connell's  marriage  took  place 
privately,  on  the  23rd  of  the  month  of  June,  1802.  The  mar- 
riage was  celebrated,  in  Darae-street,  at  the  lodgings  of  Miss 
O'Connell's  brother-in-law,  Mr.  James  Connor,  who,  with  his 
wife,  her  sister,  was  present,  as  was  also  Mr.  James  O'Connell, 
now  of  Lakeview,  near  Killarney,  Mr.  O'Connell's  brother. 
The  ceremony  was  performed  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Finn,  then  and 
still  parish  priest  of  Irishtown. 

Discovery  followed  ere  very  long,  as  usually  happens  in  those 
cases  ;  and  his  uncle's  anger  was  for  a  time  vehement.  When, 
however,  he  did  allow  the  young  couple  to  visit  him,  and  came 
to  know  and  appreciate  the  qualities  of  his  niece,  his  sentiments 
became  utterly  changed,  at  least  in  so  far  as  she  was  concerned ; 
and  as  much  as  his  nature,  which  was  not  of  the  softest,  would 
allow,  he  received  her  into  his  affections.  Mr.  O'Connell,  of 
course,  shared  in  this  change  of  feeling ;  but  it  did  not  extend 
so  far  as  quite  to  do  away  with  the  alterations,  unfavourable  to 
him,  which  the  old  gentleman  had,  on  first  hearing  of  the  mar- 
riage, made  in  his  will. 

Whatever  Mr.  O'Connell  lost  in  this  respect,  he  far  more 
than  gained  in  that  happiness  of  his  life,  which  we  cannot  dwell 
on  now  without  opening  a  fresh,  a  sad,  and  cruel  wound.  We 
can  say  no  more  than  that  doubting,  she  confirmed  him — • 
desponding,  she  cheered  him  on — drooping,  she  sustained  him 
— her  pure  spirit  may  have  often  trembled,  indeed,  as  she 
beheld  hira  exposed  to  a  thousand  assaults,  and  affronting  a 
thousand  dangers ;  but  she  quailed  not,  she  called  him  not  back. 
She  rejoiced  not  more  in  his  victories  over  them,  than  she  would 
have  heartily  and  devotedly  shared  with  and  soothed  him  in  the 
suff'erings,  in  the  ruin,  that  might  have  come  upon  him  had  he 
failed  and  been  overthrown. 

In  their  own  empire — the  sweet  domestic  circle — women,  too, 
can  serve  their   country  :   and  well,  and   faithfully,  and  most 


36  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

powerfully,  in  many  emergencies,  did  she,  of  whom  we  speak,  use 
all  a  devoted  and  a  tenderly-beloved  wife  and  mother's  influence 
for  poor  Ireland!  One  trait  of  mutual  affection  maybe  recorded. 
In  absence,  they  wrote  letters  to  each  other  every  day.  Most 
of  these  letters  are  preserved.* 

The  year  1810  witnessed  the  first  revival  of  Irish  national 
spirit,  after  the  crushing  blow  of  the  Union — the  first  uncertain 
efibrts  amid  the  mass  of  ruin  in  which  they  had  fallen,  to  look 
out  and  seek  to  uprear  again  the  shattered  pillars  of  her 
constitution. 

The  Catholic  body  were,  as  they  had  been  for  the  preceding 
years,  busy  about  their  own  claims ;  but  they  were  about  to  be 
given  an  opportunity,  where  they  least  expected  it,  for  coming 
out  again  as  nationalists,  not  as  a  class.  In  looking  over  the 
newspapers  of  the  time  for  that  event,  we  have  lit  upon  the 
following  brief  note,  not  very  important  in  itself,  but  inserted 
here  as  one  of  the  indications  of  the  steady-going  agitation  even 
then  in  progress.  It  occurs  in  the  Freeman  s  Journal  of  Friday, 
February  23,  1810,  and  is  as  follows  : — 

"  TO    THE    EI>ITOR    OF    THE    FKEEMAN's   JOURNAL. 

«'  Sir — I  am  directed  by  the  Catholic  Committee  to  inform  you,  that  the 
statement  contained  in  a  morning  paper  of  this  day,  respecting  their  proceed- 
ings, is  extremely  inaccurate  and  erroneous  in  many  important  particulars ; 
more  especially  as  far  as  relates  to  the  Veto.  That  question  was  not  fixed  for 
discussion,  nor  was  there  any  determination  whatsoever  on  the  subject. 

"  I  am  also  directed  to  request  that  you  will  publish  this  letter,  as  the 
committee  consider  that  such  statement,  if  uncontradicted,  may  be  productive 
of  mischief. 

"  I  am,  sir,  your  obedient  servant, 

"  Daniel  O'Connell,  Acthig  Sec. 

"  Crow-street,  February  22,  1810." 

As  we  have  said,  the  Catholics  were  about  being  summoned 
forth  as  nationalists.  The  flame  of  liberty  awoke  where  least  it 
was   expected — namely,   in   the   Dublin   corporation.     Messrs. 


*  We  have,  unfortunately,  been  unable  to  find,  in  time  for  insertion  here,  a 
speech  of  Mr.  O'Connell's,  in  the  year  1835,  which  touched  upon  his  married 
happiness ;  and  was  so  admired  for  its  pathos  and  power,  as  to  liave  been  copied 
into  nearly  all  the  English  and  Scotch  papers.  It  will,  however,  be  found  at 
the  end  of  the  volume. 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,     M.P.  37 

Hutton,  Willis,  Paterson,  and  other  respectable  citizens,  there 
resolved,  that  at  least  an  attempt  should  be  made,  whatever 
might  be  the  result,  to  stay  the  downward  progress  of  the 
country  since  the  Union ;  and  obtain  for  her  the  restoration  of 
her  parliament  to  revive  and  protect  her.  They  had  made  a 
previous  attempt  in  the  year  1808,  but  without  much  result, 
owing  mainly  to  the  distractions  of  the  popular  mind  in  that 
year,  from  the  first  agitation  of  the  veto.  Still  the  following, 
which  we  copy  from  the  Dublin  Evening  Post  of  March  26,  1808, 
will  show  that  there  was  some  movement,  even  then,  towards  the 
great  question  of  the  present  day  : — 

"Repeal    oe    the    Union The   corporation   of  skinners    and 

glovers  have  the  honour  of  being  the  first  to  come  forward  to  express 
their  sentiments  on  the  policy  and  necessity  which  exists  for  a  Repeal 
of  the  Act  of  Union.  These  worthy  and  spirited  citizens  met  yester- 
day, when  they  entered  into  resolutions,  which  will  be  found  in 
another  column.  Other  corporations  are  preparing  to  follow  up  with 
spirit  the  example  of  the  skinners  and  glovers.  They  will  not  be 
deterred  by  the  assertion  that  the  effort  is  useless.  They  recollect, 
that  although  it  was  proposed  in  the  Irish  House  of  Commons,  that 
the  petition  from  Belfast,  for  the  Repeal  of  Poyning's  law,  should  be 
burned  by  the  hangman,  in  College-green ;  yet,  in  less  than  seven 
years  after,  the  law  was  repealed  :  they  will  also  i-ecollect  that  Lucas 
was  exiled  for  supporting  those  principles,  which  afterwards  procured 
Grattau  the  thanks  of  his  country,  and  a  vote  of  fifty  thousand 
pounds." 

In  1810,  however,  these  patriotic  citizens  awoke  a  better,  a 
national  response.  The  freemen  and  freeholders  of  Dublin,  of 
all  classes,  combined  to  give  it ;  and  the  Catholics  were  not 
among  the  least  forward.  The  Freeman  s  Journal  then,  as  now, 
ably  sustained  and  laboured  to  increase  the  national  sentiment. 
The  Dubliji  Evening  Post,  too,  acted  a  noble  part ;  one  which 
it  is  quite  competent,  and  we  trust  will  soon  be  found  willing,  to 
imitate  in  the  present  day. 

Although  we  are  not  writing  a  history  of  the  time,  we  cannot 
refrain  from  prefacing  Mr.  O'Connell's  speech  at  the  meeting 
of  citizens  of    Dublin    for  Repeal,    in    1810,    with    some    ex- 


38  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

tracts  from  the  journals  of  the  time,  chiefly  from  the 
Freeman,  showing  the  spirit  that  then  was  alive  among  all 
parties. 

We  proceed,  therefore,  to  give  a  brief  report  of  a  meeting 
of  the  Dublin  corporation,  early  in  May,  extracted  from 
the  Freeman's  Journal  of  May  12,  1810 — a  short  statement 
of  the  steps  adopted  by  them  to  procure  a  general  meeting  of 
citizens,  extracted  from  the  Freeman  of  the  25th  July.  The 
requisition  for  that  meeting,  as  published  in  the  same  paper, 
September  11,  and  a  report  of  the  meeting  itself  with  all  its 
interesting  circumstances,  from  the  newspapers  of  the  19th  and 
22nd  September,  the  latter  having  the  best  report  of  Mr. 
O'Connell's  speech  on  that  most  interesting  occasion. 


COMMON  COUNCIL  DUBLIN. 

FRIDAY,    MAY   4,   1810. 

"  Mr.  Willis  said  he  rose  under  much  difficulty,  from  the  insidious 
and  malignant  attacks  on  his  character  which  the  house  had  just 
listened  to.  He  hoped  it  would  not  prejudice  them  against  the 
motion  he  would  now  submit  to  them  on  the  measure  of  the  Union — 
a  motion  so  interesting  to  every  Irishman,  that  it  stood  in  need  of 
little  apology.  He  had  no  doubt  but  Dr.  Whitelaw's  pamphlet  would 
be  again  introduced,  to  show  the  prosperity  of  this  city,  but  he  would 
oppose  to  that  the  general  and  overwhelming  bankruptcy  with  which 
this  unfortunate  country  was  inundated.  He  asked  why  Westmore- 
land-street, Grafton-street,  and  every  other  trading  part  of  this  city, 
exhibited  such  distress  ? — why  so  many  houses  and  shops  were  shut? 
It  is  because  the  men  of  property,  the  fashion'of  the  country,  vrere 
inveigled  away  by  this  measure  to  spend  their  property  in  another 
land.  He  considered  a  union  of  the  government  absolutely  necessary 
to  support  our  glorious  constitution,  and  the  connection  between  the 
sister  islands,  to  render  the  executive  strong  and  powerful,  to  enable 
it  to  bring  into  action  the  whole  strength  of  the  empire:  but  a  union 
of  legislatures  he  considered  in  a  very  different  point  of  view.  A 
non-resident  legislature,  four-fifths  of  which  knew  little  of  this  ill- 
fated  country,  but  by  misrepresentation,  be  they  ever  so  weU  inclined 
to  serve  us,  are  liable  to  imposition,  practised  by  interested  or 
designing  men.  This  had  been  the  case  in  the  coal  act,  the  paving 
act,  the  insm-rection   act,  and  many  others.     He  should,  therefore, 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  39 

without  troubling  them  any  further,  move  the  following  petition  to 
the  imperial  parliament : — 

"  '  To  the  Knights,  Citizens,  and  Burgesses,  in  Parliament  assembled,  the 
Petition  of  the  Corporation  of  the  city  of  Dublin, 

"  '  Sheweth, 

•'  '  That  your  petitioners,  warmly  attached  to  our  most  gracious  sovereign 
the  king,  and  to  our  excellent  constitution,  have  for  many  years  observed  that 
the  law  which  unites  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  though  in  full  operation  ever 
since  the  act  passed,  has  not  increased  their  prosperity,  comfort,  or  happiness. 
That,  on  the  contrary,  your  petitioners  have  observed,  that  the  views  and 
intentions  of  your  honourable  house  in  passing  that  act  have  been  frustrated, 
and  that  they,  with  the  rest  of  their  fellow-subjects  in  Ireland,  have,  in  conse- 
quence of  that  arrangement,  sufiered  extremely  in  their  manufactures,  trade, 
and  commercial  concerns.  Experience  has  proved  the  fallacy  of  the  hopes  held 
out  by  the  advocates  of  legislative  union.  We  perceive  no  alteration  in  our 
manners,  from  the  benefit  of  a  more  civilized  intercourse — no  influx  of  British 
capital  or  manufactures — no  additional  security  to  church  or  state,  or  to  the 
connection  between  the  sister  islands;  the  discord  of  religious  sects  has  not 
been  extinguished;  it  has  had  no  tendency  to  increase  the  loyalty  of  the  loyal, 
or  to  diminish  the  disaiFection  of  the  disaffected.  The  rigorous  (perhaps 
necessary)  acts  of  the  sessions  of  1807,  to  preserve  the  tranquillity  of  this 
kingdom,  demonstrate  that  in  the  opinion  of  the  imperial  parliament  itself,  the 
union  has  not  added  to  our  security. 

' '  '  When  we  come  forward  with  this  petition,  and  crave  an  impartial  revision 
of  the  act  of  union,  let  no  man  say  that  we  do  it  to  distress  his  majesty's 
councils  in  an  arduous  contest  with  a  powerful  and  inveterate  foe.  Our  conduct 
in  this,  as  on  all  other  occasions,  is  actuated  by  that  zeal  for  the  glory  and 
honour  of  liis  majesty's  throne,  and  the  prosperity  of  the  empire,  Avhich  always 
characterised  this  ancient  and  loyal  corporation  in  the  worst  of  times.  Our 
conduct  is  grounded  on  a  full  conviction  that  the  union  is  injurious  to  both 
countries — that  it  adds  nothing  to  the  splendour  of  the  throne,  or  the  prospe- 
rity of  the  empire.  That,  instead  of  securing,  it  endangers  the  connection, 
and  that  a  repeal  thereof  would  be  one  of  the  wisest  and  most  beneficial 
measures  that  ever  came  before  the  imperial  parliament. 

"  '  When  you  erect  in  Ireland  the  standard  of  the  British  constitution, 
unstained  and  pure — when  you  give  to  Irishmen  the  invaluable  blessings  of 
that  constitution,  and  a  connection  on  liberal  terms  with  the  jMistress  of  the 
Ocean,  then  the  loyal  will  be  strengthened,  the  wavering  will  be  confirmed,  and 
the  deluded  will  be  reclaimed ;  all  Irishmen  will  flock  around  it,  and  be  ready 
to  die  in  its  defence. 

"  '  Your  petitioners,  therefore,  in  behalf  of  themselves  and  their  fellow- 
subjects  in  Ireland,  most  humbly  but  most  earnestly  entreat  your  honourable 
house  to  take  their  lamentable  situation  into  your  serious  consideration,  and 
promote,  as  far  as  in  your  power  Ueth,  an  act  to  repeal  the  union  act  between 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland. 

"  '  And  your  petitioners,  as  in  duty  bound,  will  pray.' 

"  He  was  seconded  by  Mr.  Samuel  Neville. 

"  Mr.  M'Kenzie  said  he  was  obliged,  being  instructed  by  his  corpo- 
ration, to  vote  for  a  petition.  He  conceived  his  instructions  did  not 
go  to  support  such  a  petition  as  the  one  now  read ;  the  language  was 
improper — it  could  not  be  otherwise,  coming  as  it  did.  The  usual 
way  was  to  appoint  a  committee,  which  way  he  would  support. 

"  Mr.  King  said  he  was  also  instructed  to  vote  for  the  measure ;  he 


40  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

thought  it  presumptuous  in  any  man  to  introduce  such  a  petition — he 
therefore  would  move  for  a  committee. 

"  Mr.  Read  read  the  instructions  of  his  corporation,  which  he  felt 
an  honourable  pride  in  obeying.  He  considered  himself  bound  by 
those  instructions  to  support  any  and  every  petition  which  had  a 
tendency  to  point  out  the  situation  of  the  country,  and  lead  in  the 
most  distant  way  to  the  repeal  of  that  odious  law.  He  wondered 
any  Irishman  could  so  far  forget  the  honour  of  his  country,  as  to 
advocate  so  abominable  a  measure. 

"  Mr.  Giffard  asserted  that  the  country  was  never  more  prosperous 
than  since  the  time  of  the  union — that  commerce  and  agriculture 
flourished — that  credit  was  established  upon  a  rock  too  firm  to  be 
shaken — that  the  measure  was  not  only  salutary  but  indispensable — 
that  it  served  the  country,  &c. 

"Mr,  Patterson — Mr.  Sheriff,  the  gentleman  who  has  now  sat 
down,  appears  to  me  to  forget  his  usual  prudence:  had  he  let  this 
question  go  in  silence  to  the  chair,  it  would  travel  up  to  the  board, 
and  there  die  a  natural  death ;  instead  of  acting  thus,  he  debates  on 
the  prosperity  of  the  country,  and  the  advantages  the  metropolis  has 
obtained.  Had  he  mentioned  the  union  of  Scotland  as  honestly  paid 
for,  he  would  be  heard,  and  believed,  with  patience.  Look,  since 
1707  to  this  day — see  now  granted  £50,000  for  the  canal  to  form  the 
west  communication  to  the  east,  and  £10,000  for  roads  and  bridges 
in  the  highlands.  Now,  sii',  if  he  wishes  to  argue  the  blessings  we 
have  received  by  the  union,  I  am  ready  to  meet  him  on  fair  prin- 
ciples— from  the  Dean  of  Gloucester's  famous  pamphlet  to  the 
Bishopric  of  St.  David's,  and  then  travel  to  the  See  of  Armagh. 
The  Irish  union  was  never  paid  for,  except  the  price  of  the  I'otten 
boroughs  that  filled  the  pockets  of  a  few  individuals.  I  will  not  now 
detain  this  house  but  to  remark,  that  if  arguments  be  necessary,  I 
hope  to  be  able  to  satisfy  this  house  and  the  honest  citizens  of 
Dublin,  of  the  atrocity  of  a  measure  that  has  so  lately  hurled 
destruction  on  some  of  the  most  respectable  mercantile  firms  in  the 
kingdom. 

"  Mr.  Giffard — Sir,  I  have  no  doubt  but  the  gentleman  will  satisfy 
himself,  and  not  the  public  ;  but  from  the  threats  he  holds  out  of  the 
Dean  of  Gloucester,  the  Bishop  of  St.  David's,  and  then  travelling 
to  the  See  of  Armagh,  I  will  let  the  question  go  in  silence  to  the 
chair. 

"  Mr.  Patterson — Yes,  sir,  he  does  I'ight  to  let  the  question  pass  in 
silence  to  the  chair;  but  I  am  certain  of  convincing  him,  with  com- 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  41 

pound  interest,  for  his  observations  on  this  question  of  union,  should 
he  attempt  to  justify  the  measure. 

"  Mr.  Craven  said  he  rose  for  the  purpose  of  delivering  his  senti- 
ments on  the  question  of  union,  and  to  give  the  petition  his  warm 
support,  as  he  conceived  it  spoke  the  language  of  truth,  and  was 
couched  in  a  respectful  and  firm  manner  ;  but  if  it  was  the  sense  of 
the  house  that  it  should  go  to  a  committee,  he  had  no  objection.  Sir, 
when  this  measure  was  first  broached,  great  promises  were  made  to 
the  people  of  Ireland.  The  Catholic  body,  without  whose  consent 
the  measure  could  never  have  been  carried,  were  promised  emancipa- 
tion— ^for  this  promise  they  sacrificed  their  country — they  were  duped 
and  disappointed — Dublin  was  to  be  made  a  free  port — the  toUs  were 
to  be  taken  off  your  canals — you  were  told  that  this  country  was  to 
be  a  land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey.  Now,  sir,  the  experience  of 
ten  years  has  shown  you  how  aU  these  fine  promises  have  been 
fulfilled  ;  your  country  was  sold  by  the  most  shameful  traffic,  and  the 
people  burdened  with  intolerable  taxes,  to  compensate,  bribe,  and 
pay  the  very  men  who  betrayed  you.  The  gentleman  who  has  j  ust 
sat  down,  tells  you  he  stood  single-handed  and  alone  to  support  that 
measure.  I  wiU  certainly  give  him  credit  for  consistency,  when 
almost  every  honest,  unbribed,  unplaced,  and  unpensioned  man  in  the 
kingdom  petitioned  against  it  except  himself;  and  I  have  a  right  to 
make  the  exception,  as  we  have  seen  him  sacrifice  his  place,  when  he 
thought  it  interfered  with  a  public  duty.  He  did  singly  in  this  house 
support  a  measure  that  blotted  Ireland  as  a  kingdom  from  the  map  of 
Europe.  He  now  tells  you,  that  it  was  the  happiest  event  ever 
Ireland  was  blessed  with ;  and  that  the  inhabitants  of  this  metropolis 
had  increased  in  wealth,  and  were  making  rapid  fortunes  in  conse- 
quence of  it.  Sir,  are  the  numerous  bankruptcies,  almost  unparal- 
leled in  this  city,  a  proof  of  the  blessing  ?  If  an  individual  instance 
of  the  injury  it  has  done  Ii'eland  was  wanting,  /  could  mention 
myself^  and  declare  on  my  oath.,  as  a  member  of  the  corporation^ 
that  I  have,  on  an  average  of  the  number  of  years  that  have  passed 
since  that  event  took  place,  lost  Jive  hundred  pounds  per  annum. 
Sir,  it  is  not  my  wish  that  the  House  of  Commons,  as  they  were 
before  the  union,  should  be  restored ;  it  would  in  that  case  be  only 
necessary  for  the  minister  to  double  your  window-tax  ;  and  the  same 
men  would  sell  you  again,  whenever  the  same  temptation  was  held 
out  to  them.  One  great  good  has  come  from  the  union,  I  will  allow: 
that  is,  that  it  has  made  a  precedent,  and  laid  the  foundation  of  a 
reform  in  parliament,  without  distui'bing  or  agitating  the  people,  of 


42  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

risking  the  loss  of  innocent  lives.  The  one  hundred  members  you 
now  return  to  the  imperial  parliament,  are  almost  all  representatives 
of  the  counties,  cities,  and  principal  towns ;  restore  them  to  us,  and 
if  they  are  thought  too  few,  double  or  treble  them,  but  let  them  be 
returned  by  the  same  places ;  let  them,  with  our  house  of  lords,  and 
our  beloved  king,  legislate  for  Ireland  in  the  capital  of  their  kingdom, 
and  not  merge  amongst  five  hundred  foreigners,  who  know  little  about 
you,  and  care  still  less.  Had  a  parliament  so  constructed  in  Dublin, 
your  paving  bill  and  many  obnoxious  measures  could  never  have 
passed  into  a  law  ;  nor  would  it  have  been  in  the  power  of  an  indi- 
vidual to  have  the  banking  bill  thrown  out,  by  which,  from  an 
honourable  gentleman's  own  statement,  the  city  of  Dublin  annually 
loses  £200,000.  For  these  reasons  I  do  most  heartily  concur  in 
any  measure  that  may  lead  to  do  away  the  evil  under  which  we 
suffer. 

"  Mr.  Willis  moved  for  a  committee,  which  was  carried,  42  to  38  ; 
and  then  sent  the  resolution  to  the  board  for  their  concurrence,  who 
adjourned  without  coming  to  any  decision." 


REPEAL  OF  THE  UNION. 

"Pursuant  to  the  resolutions  of  the  Common  Council,  entered  into 
at  the  Quarter  Assembly  last  Friday,  the  committee,  then  appointed, 
met  yesterday  at  the  Exhibition  House,  William-street,  in  order  to 
forward  such  measures  as  may  be  considered  most  conducive  to  effect 
the  repeal  of  that  most  obnoxious  arrangement — a  Legislative  Union. 
Indeed,  the  results  of  that  fatal  measure  have  been  so  destructive 
as  to  convince  the  most  obstinate,  and  awaken  the  most  besotted. 
The  general  state  of  bankruptcy  and  decadence  which  predominate 
over  this  once  flourishing  metropolis,  are  the  ablest  comments  on  that 
pestiferous  act  which  deprived  Ireland  at  once  of  her  independence 
and  parliament.  In  adverting  to  that  period,  we  know  not  most 
which  to  condemn — the  measure  itself,  or  the  means  by  which  it  was 
so  ungraciously  accomplished.  The  Union  was  founded  on  the 
disunion  of  Irishmen  ;  and  while  we  equally  execrate  and  lament  the 
unhappy  catastrophe,  let  us  also  express  a  hope,  that,  admonished  by 
our  former  fate,  we  will  henceforth  cling  together  with  one  heart  and 


DANIEL    O  CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P. 


43 


one  voice,  as  indispensably  necessary  to  rescue  the  country  from  its 
present  abyss. 

"  As  this  kingdom  has  been  erased  from  the  list  of  nations  by  its 
recent  dissensions,  so  even  yet  it  is  not  too  late  to  rescue  it  by  the 
Union  of  its  inhabitants.  Without  the  operation  of  this  salutary 
principle,  the  same  influence  that  07ice  diffused  its  baleful  operation, 
will  again  arise  and  exert  itself  to  defeat  the  generous  but  ineffectual 
struggle  of  a  deeply-injured  people.  A  requisition  to  caU  an  aggre- 
gate meeting  has,  in  consequence,  been  resolved  on. 

"  The  following  is  a  list  of  the  committee  for  repealing  the 
Union : — 


Aldermen. 

EXSHAW, 
HOWISON, 

Sir  "Wm.  Worthington, 

Reed, 

Hone, 

Archer, 

Cash, 

Bloxham, 

Alley. 


Messrs.  Craven, 

HCTTON, 

Eaton, 

Tudor, 

Eerrall, 

Stephens, 

M'Kenny, 

Neville, 

Harty, 

Hamilton, 

Dixon, 

Davis, 

GONNE, 

Minchin." 


"  Dublin,  August  8,  1810. 

"  We,  the  undersigned  late  Quarter  Session  Grand  Jurors  of  the  city  of 
Dublin,  viewing  the  distressed  and  deplorable  state  of  our  manufacturers  in 
every  branch,  and  the  city  and  nation  in  general,  do  feel  ourselves  called  upon 
to  point  out  what  we  conceive  the  only  mode  of  radical  relief  from  the  general 
gloom  and  misery  that  pervade  this  unfortunate  land,  which  is  to  request,  and 
we  do  hereby  request  the  high  sheriffs  to  call  a  meeting,  as  soon  as  possible,  of 
the  freemen  and  freeholders  of  this  city,  to  prepare  an  humble  petition  to  his 
Majesty  and  the  parliament,  praying  for  a  Repeal  of  the  Act  of  Union,  as  we, 
in  common  with  all  our  unbiassed  countrymen,  look  upon  that  act,  as  the  root 
and  origin  of  all  our  misfortunes. 


Thomas  Rochford, 
John  Farrell, 
Ambrose  Moore, 
Bever  Buchanan, 


R.  Marshall, 
L.  Morgan, 
John  Hamilton, 
Luke  Sibthorpe, 


John  Davis, 
John  Keogh, 
Thomas  Mac  Bride, 
John  Read. 


"We,  the  undersigned  freemen  and  freeholders  of  the  city  of  Dublin,  do 
request  Sir  Edward  Stanley  and  Sir  James  Riddall,  Knights,  high  sheriffs  of 
this  city,  to  call  a  meeting  of  the  freemen  and  freeholders,  at  as  early  a  day  as 


44 


MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 


possible,  to  take  iato  consideration  the  necessity  that  exists  of  presenting  a 
petition  to  his  Majesty  and  the  imperial  parhament,  for  a  Kepeal  of  the  Act  of 
Union. 


The  Hon.  Robert  Moore, 

Daniel  Hutton, 

Ambrose  Boxwell, 

John  Moore, 

Joshua  Pasley, 

William  Bardin, 

Charles  Bingham, 

Samuel  Neville, 

Joshua  Kearney, 

Benjamin  Eaton, 

Joseph  Langstaff, 

William  Porter, 

Peter  Hoey, 

William  Abbott, 

Tresham  Gregg, 

Charles  Lilly, 

Saml.  Stephens,  [Wellington] 

Joshua  Birkett, 

John  T.  Sinnot, 

Charles  Thorpe,  jun., 

Robert  Newell,  jun., 

Robert  Harty, 

John  Willis, 

Mark  M'Cormlck, 

John  Taylor, 

Toby  Molloy, 

John  Meyler, 

F.  W,  Conway, 

Richard  Cole, 

William  Farrell, 

Richard  Spear, 

R.  Wilson, 

Jonah  Barrington, 

W.  Wood, 

John  O'Neil, 

James  Thorp, 

John  Fox, 

Henry  Jones, 

John  Hawkins, 

Thomas  Grubb, 

Anthony  Vaughan, 

Bartholomew  Murphy, 


Peter  Gorman, 
James  Ross, 
Davis  Tate, 
Henry  Willett, 
James  Patterson, 
Robert  Hunter, 
Bernard  Cummons, 
John  Hunnou, 
Thomas  Geoghan, 
Joseph  Adrien, 
James  Rooney, ' 
Peter  Campbell, 
Edward  Burnett, 
John  Potts, 
J.  D.  Potts, 
Philip  W.  Harvey, 
James  Shaw, 
James  Brush, 
Richard  E.  Mercier, 
Jonas  Paisley, 
Patrick  Gibbons, 
David  Hinchy, 
Henry  Sutton, 
Michael  Kehoe, 
G.  Connor, 
Thomas  Bowling, 
Edward  Butler,  jun., 
John  Magee, 
John  Stevenson, 
William  Molloy, 
Charles  Darley, 
William  Poole, 
M.  H.  ConoUy, 
Ebenezer  Geale, 
Thomas  Abbott, 
Christopher  Regney, 
George  Coyle, 
Richard  Connory, 
John  Busby, 
John  Dixon, 
Edfrard  Ferrall, 


Thomas  Willyn, 
Edward  Sterne, 
John  Pasley 
Robert  Fyan, 
John  Fyan, 
William  Laine, 
E.  Berney, 
Charles  Cox, 
William  Stephens, 
John  Williams, 
Laughlin  Maxwell, 
William  Rochford, 
John  Donovan, 
Alex.  Wilson, 
George  Irwin, 
Benjamin  Stephens, 
Charles  Corly, 
John  Drummond, 
Nicholas  Kildahl, 
James  O'Badne, 
G.  Henry, 

Benjamin  Pemberton, 
R.  Manders, 
Michael  Farrell, 
Peter  Brophy, 
Francis  Humphrys, 
William  Campbell, 
John  Preston,  jun., 
Robert  Brindley, 
Robert  Beard,  j 
Andrew  Carr, 
Jonathan  Knaggs, 
James  Dowling, 
Robert  Patterson, 
William  Gilbert, 
Zachariah  Foxall, 
M'illiam  Bushe, 
Thomas  Conran, 
W.  Petterson, 
Thomas  Clinch, 
Richard  Millikin. 


"to    the    freemen    and    freeholders    of    the    city    of    DUBLIN. 

"  Gentlemen — Fully  impressed  as  I  am  with  the  right  which  the  freemen 
and  freeholders  possess,  of  expressing  their  sentiments  upon  any  pubhc  mea- 
sure, in  a  constitutional  and  moderate  form ;  and  feeling  a  decided  conviction 
of  my  legal  competency  to  assemble  them,  I  hereby,  in  compliance  with  the 
above  requisition,  appoint  the  18th  day  of  September  instant,  to  meet  at  the 
Royal  Exchange,  for  the  purpose  of  taking  into  consideration  the  propriety  of 
petitioning  our  gracious  sovereign  and  the  imperial  parliament  for  a  Repeal  of 
the  Act  of  Union. 

' '  In  fulfilling  this  my  bounden  duty,  I  feel  it  necessary  to  recommend  the 
decorum  and  order  which  should  characterise  an  assembly  of  the  citizens  of 
Dublin,  called  together  for  a  great  public  object,  in  which  the  interests  of  their 
country  are  so  deeply  concerned,  they  will  conduct  the  discussion  with  that 
temper  and  moderation  becoming  their  cause,  and  worthy  their  character  of  free 
and  loyal  citizens.  With  this  persuasion  on  my  mind,  I  sliall  feel  it  unnecessary 
to  assemble  any  guard  whatever,  but  the  beadles  of  the  respective  corporations. 
"  (Signed)  James  Riddall. 

"  Stephen's-green,  September  10,  1810. 
"  Gentlemen — Although  extremely  desirous  to  forward  the  wishes  of  any 
portion  of  my  fellow-citizens,  yet  it  appears  to  me,  upon  mature  consideration, 
that  the  proposed  objects  of  the  meeting,  which  you  have  required  me  to  con- 
vene, are  so  unlikely  to  be  obtained,  and  so  obviously  calculated,  unnecessarily, 
to  agitate  the  public  mind,  and  to  endanger  the  peace  of  the  city,  for  which  I 
am  responsible,  that  I  would  consider  it  a  violation  of  my  duty  to  comply  with 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  45 

the  requisition.     I  am  fortified  in  this  determination,  by  the  advice  of  the  most 
eminent  bankers,  merchants,  and  magistrates,  whom   I  have  consulted,  and 
whose  opinions  were  totally  unswayed  by  any  party  or  political  motive. 
"I  have  the  honour  to  be,  gentlemen,  your  most  obedient  humble  servant, 
"(Signed)  Ed avard  Stanley. 

"  To  the  Freemen  and  Freeholders  of  the  County 
of  'the  City  of  Dublin,  who  have  signed 
a  Requisition  for  an  Aggregate  Meeting 
relating  to  the  Union." 


At  an  Aggregate  Meeting  of  the  Freemen  and  Freeholders  of  the 
city  of  Dublin,  convened  pursuant  to  requisition,  and  held  at  the 
Royal  Exchange,  on  Tuesday,  the  18th  Sei^tember,  1810,  Sir  James 
Riddall,  High  Sheriff,  in  the  chair,  it  was — 

"  Resolved  unanimously — '  That  a  committee  of  nine  gentlemen  be  appointed, 
for  the  purpose  of  preparing  a  petition  to  his  Majesty,  and  another  to  the  two 
houses  of  parliament,  praying  a  Repeal  of  the  Act  of  Union.' 

' '  The  committee  having  been  appointed,  and  the  petitions  read — 

"  Resolved  unanimously — '  That  the  petition  to  the  King's  most  excellent 
Majesty,  praying  a  Repeal  of  the  Union  Law,  be  adopted  as  the  petition  of  the 
freemen  and  freeholders  of  the  county  of  the  city  of  Dublin.' 

"Resolved  imanimously — '  That  the  petition  to  both  houses  of  parliament, 
praying  for  the  said  Repeal,  be  adopted  as  the  petition  of  the  assembly.' 

"  Resolved — '  That  a  permanent  committee  of  twenty-one  persons,  freemen 
and  freeholders  of  the  city  of  Dublin,  be  appointed,  and  hereby  entrusted,  not 
only  with  the  care  of  having  the  petition  presented  to  his  Majesty  and  to  Par- 
liament, but  with  the  duty  of  co-operating  with  all  such  otlier  persons  as  shall 
seek,  by  legal  and  constitutional  means,  the  Repeal  of  the  Act  of  Union.' 

"  Resolved  unanimously — '  That  our  excellent  and  amiable  viceroy,  his  Grace 
the  Duke  of  Richmond,  has,  by  the  uniform  conciliation  and  wisdom  of  his 
conduct,  merited  the  gratitude  and  thanks  of  the  Irish  nation.  As  a  patron  of 
public  institutions — as  a  friend  to  Irish  manufactures — as  an  upright  chief 
governor,  combining  at  once  suavity  of  demeanour  with  constitutional  modera- 
tion, his  Grace's  ministry  will  be  long  remembered  with  affection  and  esteem 
by  every  loyal  Irishman.' 

"Resolved  unanimoiisly — 'That  we,  the  citizens  of  Dublin,  in  aggregate 
meeting,  legally  assembled,  fully  impressed  with  a  sense  of  his  Grace's  many 
virtues,  seize  with  pleasure  this  public  opportunity  of  returning  our  grateful 
acknowledgments  to  his  Grace,  and  of  thus  recording  our  unqualified  approba- 
tion of  his  lieutenancy  in  this  kingdom.' 

"  Sir  James  Riddall  having  left  the  chair,  and  Robert  Shaw,  Esq.,  M.P., 
being  called  thereto — 

"  Resolved  unanimously — '  That  the  thanks  of  the  aggregate  meeting,  and 
the  gratitude  of  the  Irish  nation,  are  due  to  Sir  James  Riddall,  Knight,  not  only 
for  his  polite  and  dignified  conduct  this  day  in  the  chair,  but  also  for  the 
uniform  patriotism  with  which  he  has  distinguished  his  sheriffalty.' 

"  Resolved  unanimously — '  That  a  piece  of  plate,  of  the  value  of  at  least  one 
huncired  guineas,  be  presented  to  Sir  James  Riddall,  as  a  small  token  of  the 
respect  and  gratitude  which  his  fellow-citizens  entertain  for  his  integrity,  which 
yielded  neither  to  influence  nor  menace  in  the  performance  of  his  public  duty.' 

"  Signed  by  order, 

"Frederick  W.  Conway,  Sec." 


46  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 


AGGREGATE  MEETING. 

"  At  a  meeting  of  the  citizens,  freemen,  and  freeholders  of  the 
city  of  Dublin,  at  the  Royal  Exchange,  on  Tuesday,  18th  September, 
1810,  held  pursuant  to  a  requisition  of  several  respectable  citizens  of 
Dublin,  to  the  high  sheriffs,  to  consider  of  a  petition  to  the  king's 
most  excellent  majesty,  and  the  imperial  parliament,  praying  them  to 
take  into  their  consideration  the  Repeal  of  the  Act  of  Union — Sir 
James  Riddall,  Knight,  high  sheriff  of  the  city  of  Dublin,  in  the 
chair. 

"  On  Sir  James  Riddall  taking  the  chair,  he  addressed  the  most 
numerous  and  respectable  auditory  that  ever  assembled  in  the  city  of 
Dublin.  He  recommended  to  the  assembly  to  maintain  the  utmost 
order  and  regularity  in  their  proceedings  ;  assuring  them  he  had  the 
greatest  hopes  that  if  they  conducted  themselves  with  propriety,  they 
would  finally  succeed  in  carrying  their  point ;  but  by  manifesting  a 
contrary  disposition,  they  would  afford  a  pretext  to  their  enemies  to 
malign  their  motives. 

"  The  requisition,  signed  by  a  number  of  citizens,  freemen,  and 
freeholders  of  the  city  of  Dublin,  at  the  late  Quarter  Sessions  Grand 
Jury,  was  read  by  Mr.  Frederick  Conway,  who  was  appointed 
secretary  to  the  meeting,  stating,  that  on  account  of  the  depressed 
state  of  the  manufactures  in  the  county  and  city  of  Dublin,  the 
citizens  of  Dublin  pointed  out  as  the  only  mode  of  radical  relief 
which  occurred  to  them  was  to  present  a  requisition  to  the  high 
sheriffs  of  the  city  of  Dublin,  to  call  a  meeting  of  the  citizens,  free- 
men, and  freeholders  of  Dublin,  to  consider  of  presenting  a  petition 
to  his  Majesty,  praying  a  Repeal  of  the  Act  of  Union. 

"  Sir  James  Riddall  then  said — In  consequence  of  the  requisition, 
I  have  called  you,  gentlemen,  together  this  day.  I  am  determined, 
impartially,  to  hear  every  one  for  and  against  the  question ;  a  patient 
hearing  will  be  given  to  every  gentleman  who  chooses  to  deliver  his 
opinion  on  either  side. 

"  Mr.  Hutton  then  rose  and  spoke  as  follows : — Mr.  Sheriff,  I  am 
called  upon  to  move  a  resolution,  that  a  committee  may  be  appointed 
to  prepare  and  draw  up  a  petition  to  the  king's  most  excellent 
Majesty,  and  to  the  imperial  parliament,  to  take  into  consideration 
the  Repeal  of  the  Union.  I  stand  forth  on  this  occasion,  an  advocate 
of  the  Repeal  of  the  Act  of  Union,  and  I  claim  your  candid  atten- 
tion. I  am  aware  of  the  inadequacy  of  my  abilities  on  this  occasion, 
but  I  appeal  to  your  candour  and  goodness,  and  I  appeal  to  every 


DANIEL    O  CftNNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  47 

man  that  knows  me,  of  the  rectitude  of  my  intentions.  It  has  been 
asserted  privately,  that  this  assembly  has  been  convened  for  improper 
purposes :  the  purport  of  this  meeting  is,  to  put  down  everything  like 
disorder  in  the  state,  and  present  a  petition  to  his  Majesty,  stating 
that  we  conceive  it  would  be  for  the  benefit  of  our  common  country, 
and  to  preserve  our  connection  with  England,  and  testify  our  loyalty 
to  our  King,  by  having  the  Act  of  Union  Repealed.  This  wretched 
act  has  prevented  our  manufactures  from  having  a  fair  competition  in 
the  market ;  and  were  it  repealed,  it  would  be  of  the  utmost  advan- 
tage to  our  manufactures,  and  give  a  new  impulse  to  our  commerce. 
The  repeal  of  that  measure,  he  contended,  would  tend  to  the  best 
means  to  secure  the  prosperity  and  happiness  of  Ireland.  At  the 
time  the  Act  of  Union  was  proposed,  it  was  held  out  to  the  people  of 
this  country,  that  persons  possessing  great  British  capital,  would 
come  over  from  England  and  establisTi  manufactures  in  Ireland,  and 
particularly  in  Dublin,  our  trade  would  be  increased — that  we  should 
have  the  education  of  the  poor  in  Ireland  properly  attended  to.  The 
Roman  Catholics  were  then  told  that  their  claims  would  be  taken  into 
consideration  by  the  British  Parliament,  and  attended  to.  The 
Roman  Catholics  were  told  that  they  had  a  right  to  expect  more 
benefits  from  the  interference  of  the  British  parliament,  than  they 
could  expect  to  receive  from  an  Irish  parliament.  Sir,  we  have  now 
had  the  experience  of  ten  years,  since  the  passing  of  the  act  of 
Union,  and  let  me  ask,  had  the  Irish  manufactures  had  a  fair  compe- 
tition in  the  British  markets  ?  Have  the  manufactures  of  Ireland 
been  protected  and  encouraged,  or  have  those  of  Dublin  flourished  as 
we  wei'e  promised  ?  Let  me  ask,  have  the  poor  of  the  land  had  their 
education  properly  attended  to  ?  Every  man  that  is  a  well-wisher  to 
the  prosperity  of  Ireland,  will  answer  me  in  the  negative.  Have  the 
Roman  Catholics  met  with  any  acknowledgment  of  the  justice  of 
their  claims  ?  If  they  have,  let  any  man  who  now  hears  me,  stand 
forward  and  avow  it.  On  the  contrary,  the  Catholics,  in  their  rights, 
ever  since  the  passing  of  the  Act  of  Union,  have  stood,  and  do  stand, 
at  present,  just  where  they  began.  They  have  endeavoured  to  get 
their  claims  acknowledged  and  acquiesced  in ;  but  are  they  not  at 
this  instant  precluded  from  holding  any  superior  rank  in  the  army  ? 
I  do  not,  sir,  speak  of  administration,  but  I  contend  that  the  welfare 
and  prosperity  of  Ireland  depend  upon  the  Repeal  of  the  Act  of 
Union.  We,  therefore,  wish  the  parliament  of  Ireland  to  be  restored 
to  the  same  state  it  was  in  at  the  period  of  1782.  A  parliament  in 
Ireland  is  the  only  means  of  restoring  the  independence,  promoting 


48  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

the  happiness  of  our  country,  secui'ing  its  peace  and  prosperity.  Sir, 
I  feel  myself  inadequate  to  do  ample  justice  to  the  business  now 
before  us  ;  I  shall  only  say,  I  consider  that  the  Repeal  of  the  Act  of 
Union  would  tend  to  the  advantage  of  my  countiy.  My  want  of 
ability  to  do  adequate  justice  to  the  great  question,  and  I  expect  that 
this  business  will  be  fully  spoken  to  by  these  honourable  gentlemen 
who  will  take  a  part  in  the  debates  of  this  day,  with  whom  this 
business  originated.  I  trust,  sir,  that  this  day's  proceedings  will 
show  to  the  world,  collectively  and  individually,  our  loyalty,  zeal, 
and  attachment  to  our  good  king,  and  prove  that  our  opinion  is 
universal  and  unanimous,  concei'ning  the  Act  of  Union.  I  mention, 
sir,  that  it  is  by  such  a  Repeal  only,  that  the  peace  and  tranquillity 
of  Ireland  can  be  preserved.  We  should  be  indissolubly  linked  to 
Great  Britain  by  such  a  Repeal,  and  by  such  a  one  alone !  I  move, 
sir,  that  a  committee  of  nine  persons  be  appointed  to  prepare  and 
draw  up  an  address  to  his  majesty,  and  to  the  imperial  parliament, 
praying  a  Repeal  of  the  Act  of  Union. 

"  Ambrose  Moore,  Esq.  seconded  the  motion. 

"  The  resolution  was  read  accordingly,  and  agreed  to  without  one 
dissenting  voice. 

"  A  committee  of  nine  gentlemen  was  then  appointed  to  draw  up 
and  prepare  the  said  petition.  The  names  were,  Mr.  Hutton,  Mr 
Randal  M'Donald,  Mr.  Ashenhurst,  Mr.  O'Connell,  Mr.  Moore,  Mr. 
N.  Mahon,  Mr.  Abbot,  Mr.  Harty,  Mr.  Farrell.  The  said  committee 
appointed  to  prepare  and  draw  up  the  petition,  having  prepared  the 
same,  they  made  their  report  to  the  assembly  at  large. 

"  The  petition  to  the  king  was  then  read  and  carried  unani- 
mously. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  declared  that  he  offered  himself  to  the  meeting  with 
unfeigned  diffidence.  He  was  unable  to  do  justice  to  his  feelings  on 
the  great  national  subject  on  which  they  had  met.  He  felt  too  much 
of  personal  anxiety  to  allow  him  to  arrange  in  anything  like  order, 
the  many  topics  which  rushed  upon  his  mind,  now,  that  after  ten 
years  of  silence  and  torpor.  Irishmen  began  again  to  recollect  their 
enslaved  country.  It  was  a  melancholy  period,  those  ten  years — a 
period  in  which  Ireland  saw  her  artificers  starved — her  tradesmen 
begging — her  merchants  become  bankrupts — her  gentry  banished — 
her  nobility  degraded.  Within  that  period  domestic  turbulence  broke 
from  day  to  day  into  open  violence  and  murder — religious  dissensions 
were  aggravated  and  embittered — credit  and  commerce  were  annihi- 
lated— taxation  augmented  in  amount  and  in  vexation.     Besides  the 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  49 

'hangings-off'  of  the  ordinary  assizes,  we  had  been  disgraced  l)y  the 
necessity  that  existed  for  holding  two  special  commissions  of  death, 
and  had  been  degraded  by  one  rebellion — and,  to  crown  all,  we  were  at 
length  insulted  by  being  told  of  our  "■  growing  prosperity .'  This  was  not 
the  painting  of  imagination — it  borrowed  nothing  from  fancy — it  was, 
alas,  the  plain  representation  of  the  facts  that  had  occurred — the 
picture,  in  sober  colours,  of  the  real  state  of  his  ill-fated  country. 
There  was  not  a  man  present  but  must  be  convinced  that  he  did  not 
exaggerate  a  single  fact :  there  was  not  a  man  present  but  must  know 
that  more  misery  existed  than  he  had  described.     Such  being  the 
history  of  the  first  ten  years  of  the  Union,  it  would  not  be  difficult 
to  convince    any   unprejudiced   man,   that  all  those  calamities  had 
sprung  from  that  measure.   Ireland  was  favoured  by  Providence  with 
a  fertile  soil,  an   excellent  situation   for  commerce,   intersected  by 
navigable  rivers,  indented  at  every  side  with  safe  and  commodious 
harbours,  blessed  with  a  fruitful  soil,   and  with  a  vigorous,  hardy, 
generous,  and  brave  population ;  how   did   it   happen   then,  that  the 
noble  qualities  of  the  Irish  people  were  perverted  ?  that  the  order  of 
Providence  was  disturbed,  and  its  blessings  worse  than  neglected  ? 
The  fatal  cause  was  obvious — it  was  the  Union.     That  these  deplo- 
rable eiFects  would  follow  from  that  accursed  measure,  was  prophesied. 
Before  the  Act  of  Union  passed,  it  had  been  already  proved  that  the 
trade  of  the  country  and  its   credit   must  fail  as   capital  was  drawn 
from   it ;  that   turbulence   and  violence   would   increase,    when    the 
gentry  were  removed  to  residence  in  another  country;  that  the  taxes 
should  increase  in  the  same  proportion  as  the  people  became  unable 
to  pay  them.     But  neither  the  argument  nor  the  prophetic  fears  have 
ended  with  our  present  evils.     It  has  also  been  demonstrated,  that  as 
long  as  the  Union  continues,  so  long  must  our  misfortunes  accumu- 
late.    The  nature  of  that  measure,  and  the  experience  of  facts  which 
we  have  now  had,  leave  no  doubt  of  the  truth  of  what  has  been 
assei'ted  respecting  the  future.     But,  if  there  be  any  still  incredulous, 
he  can  only  be  of  those  who  submit  their  reason  to  authority.     To 
such  person,   the   authority  of  Mr.  John  Foster,   Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer  for  Ireland,  would  probably  be  conclusive;  and  Foster  has 
assured  us,  that  final  ruin  to  our  country  must  be  the  consequence  of 
the  Union.     I   will  not  dwell,   Mr.   Sheriff,   on   the  miseries  of  my 
country ;  I  am  disgusted  with  the  wretchedness  the  Union  has  pro- 
duced; and  I  do  not  dare  to  trust  myself  with  the  contemplation  of 
the  accumulation  of  sorrow    that  must   overwhelm  the  land,  if  the 
Union  be  not  repealed  ;  I  beg  to  call  the  attention  of  the  meeting  to 

E 


50  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

another  part  of  the  subject.  The  Union,  sir,  was  a  violation  of  our 
national  and  inherent  rights — a  flagrant  injustice.  The  representa- 
tives whom  we  had  elected  for  the  short  period  of  eight  years,  had  no 
authority  to  dispose  of  their  country  for  ever.  It  cannot  be  pre- 
tended that  any  direct  or  express  authority  to  that  effect  was  given 
to  them;  and  the  nature  of  their  delegation  excludes  aU  idea  of  their 
having  any  such  by  implication.  They  were  the  servants  of  the  nation, 
empowered  to  consult  for  its  good — not  its  masters,  to  make  traffic 
and  dispose  of  it  at  their  fantasy  or  for  their  profit.  I  deny  that  the 
nation  itself  had  a  right  to  barter  its  independence,  or  to  commit 
political  suicide ;  but  when  our  servants  destroyed  our  existence  as  a 
nation,  they  added  to  the  baseness  of  assassination  all  the  guilt  of 
high  treason.  The  reasoning  vipon  which  those  opinions  are  founded 
is  sufficiently  obvious.  They  require  no  sanction  from  the  authority 
of  any  name — neither  do  I  pretend  to  give  them  any  weight,  by 
declaring  them  to  be  conscientiously  my  own ;  but  if  you  want 
authority,  to  induce  the  conviction  that  the  Union  had  injustice  for 
its  principle,  and  a  crime  for  its  basis,  I  appeal  to  that  of  his  Majesty's 
present  Attorney-General,  Mr.  Saurin,  who,  in  his  place  in  the  Irish 
parliament,  pledged  his  character  as  a  lawyer  and  a  statesman,  that 
the  Union  must  be  a  violation  of  every  moral  principle,  and  that  it 
was  a  mere  question  of  prudence  whether  it  should  not  be  resisted  by 
force.  I  also  appeal  to  the  opinions  of  the  late  Lord  High  Chan- 
cellor of  Ireland,  Mr.  George  Ponsonby — of  the  present  Solicitor- 
General,  Mr.  Bushe — and  of  that  splendid  lawyer,  Mr.  Plunket. 
The  Union  was,  thei-efore,  a  manifest  injustice — and  it  continues  to  be 
unjust  at  this  day  ;  it  was  a  crime,  and  must  be  still  criminal,  unless 
it  shall  be  ludicrously  pretended  that  crime,  like  wine,  improves  by 
old  age,  and  that  time  mollifies  injustice  into  innocence.  You  may 
smile  at  the  supposition,  but  in  sober  sadness  you  must  be  convinced 
that  we  daily  suffer  injustice ;  that  every  succeeding  day  adds  only 
another  sin  to  the  catalogue  of  British  vice  ;  and  that  if  the  Union 
continues,  it  will  only  make  crime  hereditary,  and  injustice  perpetual. 
We  have  been  robbed,  my  countrymen,  most  foully  I'obbed  of  our 
birthright,  of  our  independence — .may  it  not  be  permitted  to  us, 
mournfully,  to  ask,  how  this  consummation  of  evil  was  perfected  ? 
for  it  was  not  in  any  disastrous  battle  that  our  liberties  were  struck 
down — no  foreign  invader  had  despoiled  the  land ;  we  have  not 
forfeited  our  country  by  any  crimes — neither  did  Ave  lose  it  in  any 
domestic  insurrection.  No,  the  rebellion  was  completely  put  down 
before  the  Union  was  accomplished :  the  Irish  militia  and  the  Irisli 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  51 

yeomanry  had  put  it  down.  How,  then,  have  we  become  enslaved  ? 
Alas!  England,  that  ought  to  have  been  to  us  as  a  sister  and  a 
friend — England,  whom  we  had  loved,  and  fought  and  bled  for — 
England,  whom  we  have  protected,  and  whom  we  do  pi'otect — 
England,  at  a  period,  when  out  of  100,000  of  the  seamen  in  her 
service,  70,000  were  Irish — England  stole  upon  us  like  a  thief  in  the 
night,  and  robbed  us  of  the  precious  gem  of  our  Liberty  ;  she  stole 
from  VIS  '  that  in  which  nought  enriched  her,  but  made  us  poor 
indeed.*  Reflect,  then,  my  friends,  on  the  means  employed  to  accom- 
plish this  disastrous  measure.  I  do  not  speak  of  the  meaner  instru- 
ments of  bribery  and  corruption — we  all  know  that  everything  was 
put  to  sale — nothing  pi'ofane  or  sacred  was  omitted  in  the  Union 
mart — offices  in  the  revenue,  commands  in  the  army  and  navy,  the 
sacred  ermine  of  justice,  and  the  holy  altars  of  God  were  all  profaned 
and  polluted  as  the  rewards  of  Union  services.  By  a  vote  in  favour 
of  the  Union,  ignorance,  incapacity,  and  profligacy,  obtained  certain 
promotion — and  our  ill-fated  but  beloved  country  was  degraded  to 
her  utmost  limits,  before  she  was  transfixed  in  slavery.  But  I  do 
not  intend  to  detain  you  in  the  contemplation  of  those  vulgar  means 
of  parliamentary  success — they  are  within  the  daily  routine  of  official 
management :  neither  will  I  direct  your  attention  to  the  frightful 
recollection  of  that  avowed  fact  which  is  now  part  of  history,  that 
the  rebellion  itself  was  fomented  and  encouraged,  in  order  to  facili- 
tate the  Union.  Even  the  rebellion  was  an  accidental  and  a  secondary 
cause — the  real  cause  of  the  Union  lay  deeper,  but  is  quite  obvious. 
It  is  to  be  found  at  once  in  the  religions  dissejisions  which  the 
enemies  of  Ireland  have  created,  and  continued,  and  seek  to  perpe- 
tuate amongst  ourselves,  by  telling  us  of,  and  separating  us  into 
wretched  sections  and  miserable  subdivisions ;  they  separated  the 
Protestant  from  the  Catholic,  and  the  Presbyterian  from  both  ;  they 
revived  every  antiquated  cause  of  domestic  animosity,  and  they 
invented  new  pretexts  of  rancour  ;  but  above  all,  my  countrymen, 
they  belied  and  calumniated  us  to  each  other — they  falsely  declared 
that  we  hated  each  other,  and  they  continued  to  repeat  the  assertion, 
until  we  came  to  believe  it ;  they  succeeded  in  producing  all  the 
madness  of  party  and  religious  distinctions ;  and  whilst  we  were  lost 
in  the  stupor  of  insanity,  they  plundered  us  of  our  country,  and  left 
us  to  recover  at  our  leisure  from  the  horrid  delusion  into  which  we 
had  been  so  artfully  conducted. 

Such  then  were  the  means  by  which  the  Union  was  effisctuated.     It 
has   stript    us   of  commerce   and  wealth  ;    it   has  degraded   us,   and 


52  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

deprived  us  not  only  of  our  station  as  a  nation,  but  even  of  the  name 
of  our  country  ;  we  are  governed  by  foreigners — foreigners  make  our 
laws,  for  were  the  one  hundred  members  who  nominally  represent 
Ireland  in  what  is  called  the  imperial  parliament,  were  they 
really  our  representatives,  what  influence  could  they,  although 
unbought  and  unanimous,  have  over  the  five  hundred  and  fifty-eight 
English  and  Scotch  members  ?  But  what  is  the  fact  ?  Why  that 
out  of  the  one  hundred,  such  as  they  are,  that  sit  for  this  country, 
more  than  one-fifth  know  nothing  of  us,  and  are  unknown  to  us. 
What,  for  example,  do  we  know  about  Andrew  Strahan,  printer  to 
the  king  ?  What  can  Henry  Martin,  barrister-at-law,  care  for  the 
rights  or  liberties  of  Irishmen  ?  Some  of  us  may,  perhaps,  for  our 
misfortunes,  have  been  compelled  to  read  a  verbose  pamphlet  of 
James  Stevens ;  but  who  knows  anything  of  one  Crile,  one  Hughan, 
one  Cackin,  or  of  a  dozen  more  whose  names  I  could  mention,  only 
because  I  have  discovered  them  for  the  purpose  of  speaking  to  you 
about  them ;  what  sympathy  can  we,  in  our  sufferings,  expect  from 
those  men  ?  What  solicitude  for  our  interests  ?  What  are  they  to 
Ireland,  or  Ireland  to  them  ?  No,  Mr.  Sheriff,  we  are  not  repre- 
presented — we  have  no  effectual  share  in  the  legislation — the  thing  is 
a  mere  mockery ;  neither  is  the  imperial  parliament  competent  to 
legislate  for  us— it  is  too  unwieldy  a  machine  to  legislate  with  dis- 
cernment for  England  alone  ;  but  with  respect  to  Ireland,  it  has  all 
the  additional  inconvenience  that  arise  from  want  of  interest  and 
total  ignorance.  Sir,  when  I  talk  of  the  utter  ignorance,  in  Irish 
affairs,  of  the  members  of  the  imperial  parliament,  I  do  not  exagge- 
rate or  mistake  ;  the  ministers  themselves  are  in  absolute  darkness 
with  respect  to  this  country.  I  undertake  to  demonstrate  it.  Sir, 
they  have  presumed  to  speak  of  the  growing  prosperity  of  Ireland — I 
know  them  to  be  vile  and  profligate — I  cannot  be  suspected  of 
flattering  them — yet,  vile  as  they  are,  I  do  not  believe  they  could 
have  had  the  audacity  to  insert  in  the  speech,  supposed  to  be  spoken 
by  his  majesty,  that  expression,  had  they  known  that,  in  fact,  Ireland 
was  in  abject  and  increasing  poverty.  Sir,  they  were  content  to 
take  their  information  from  a  pensioned  Frenchman — a  being  styled 
Sir  Francis  D'lvernois,  who,  in  one  of  the  pamphlets  which  it  is  his 
trade  to  Avrite,  has  proved,  by  excellent  samples  of  vulgar  arithmetic, 
that  our  manufactures  are  flourishing,  our  commerce  extending,  and 
our  felicity  consummate.  When  you  detect  the  ministers  themselves 
in  such  gross  ignorance,  as,  upon  such  authority,  to  place  an  insult- 
ing falsehood  as  it  were,  in  the  mouth  of  our  revered  sovereign,  what 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  53 

think  you  can  be  the  fitness  of  nine  minor  imps  of  legislation  to  make 
laws  for  Ireland.  Indeed,  the  recent  plans  of  taxation  sufficiently 
evince  how  incompetent  the  present  scheme  of  parliament  is  to 
legislate  for  Ireland.  Had  we  an  Irish  parliament,  it  is  impossible 
to  conceive  that  they  would  have  adopted  taxes  at  once  oppressive 
and  unproductive — ruinous  to  the  country,  and  useless  to  the  crown. 
No,  sir,  an  Irish  parliament,  acquainted  with  the  state  of  the  country, 
and  individually  interested  to  tax  proper  objects,  would  have,  even 
in  this  season  of  distress,  no  difficulty  in  raising  the  necessary 
supplies.  The  loyalty  and  good  sense  of  the  Irish  nation  would  aid 
them  ;  and  we  should  not,  as  now,  perceive  taxation  unproductive  of 
money,  but  abundantly  fertile  in  discontent.  There  is  another 
subject  that  peculiarly  requires  the  attention  of  the  legislature ;  but 
it  is  one  which  can  be  managed  only  by  a  resident  and  domestic 
parliament — it  includes  everything  that  relates  to  those  strange  and 
portentous  disturbances  which,  from  time  to  time,  affright  and  deso- 
late the  fairest  districts  of  the  island.  It  is  a  delicate  and  difficult 
subject,  and  one  that  would  require  the  most  minute  knowledge  of 
the  causes  that  produce  those  disturbances,  and  would  demand  all 
the  attention  and  care  of  men,  whose  individual  safety  was  connected 
with  the  discovery  of  a  proper  remedy.  I  do  not  wish  to  calculate 
the  extent  of  evil  that  may  be  dreaded  from  the  outrages  I  allude  to, 
if  our  country  shall  continue  in  the  hands  of  foreign  empirics  and 
pretenders ;  but  it  is  clear  to  a  demonstration,  that  no  man  can  be 
attached  to  his  king  and  country,  who  does  not  avow  the  necessity  of 
submitting  the  control  of  this  political  evil,  to  the  only  competent 
tribunal — an  Irish  parliament.  The  ills  of  this  awful  moment  are 
not  confined  to  our  domestic  complaints  and  calamities.  The  great 
enemy  of  the  liberty  of  the  world,  extends  his  influence  and  his 
power  from  the  Frozen  Ocean  to  the.  Straits  of  Gibraltar.  He 
threatens  us  with  invasion  from  the  thousand  ports  of  his  vast 
empire ;  how  is  it  possible  to  resist  him  with  an  impoverished, 
divided,  and  dispirited  empire.  If  then  you  are  loyal  to  your  excel- 
lent monarch — if  you  are  attached  to  the  last  relict  of  political 
freedom,  can  you  hesitate  to  join  in  endeavouring  to  procure  the 
remedy  for  all  your  calamities — the  sure  protection  against  all  the 
threats  of  your  enemy — the  Repeal  of  the  Union.  Yes,  restore  to 
Irishmen  their  country,  and  you  may  well  defy  the  invader's  force  ; 
give  back  Ireland  to  her  hardy  and  brave  population,  and  you  have 
nothing  to  dread  from  foreign  power.  It  is  useless  to  detain  the 
meeting  longer,  in  detailing  the  miseries  that  the  Union  has  produced, 


54  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OE 

or  in  pointing  out  the  necessity  that  exists  for  its  Repeal.  I  have 
never  met  any  man  who  did  not  deplore  this  fatal  measure,  which  has 
despoiled  his  country ;  nor  do  I  believe  that  there  is  a  single  indivi- 
dual in  the  island,  who  could  be  found  even  to  pretend  approbation  of 
that  measure.  I  would  be  glad  to  see  the  face  of  the  man,  or  rather 
of  the  beast,  who  could  dare  to  say  he  thought  the  Union  wise  or 
good — for  the  being  who  could  say  so,  must  be  devoid  of  all  the  feel- 
ings that  distinguish  humanity.  With  the  knowledge  that  such  were 
the  sentiments  of  the  universal  Irish  nation,  how  does  it  happen  that 
the  Union  had  lasted  for  ten  years  ?  The  solution  of  the  question 
was  easy.  The  Union  continued  only  because  we  despaired  of  its 
Repeal.  Upon  this  despair  alone  had  it  continued — yet  what  could 
be  more  absurd  than  such  despair  ?  If  the  Irish  sentiment  be  but 
once  known — if  the  voice  of  six  millions  be  raised  from  Cape  Clear 
to  the  Giants'  Causeway — if  the  men  most  remarkable  for  their 
loyalty  to  their  king,  and  attachment  to  ccnstitutional  liberty, 
will  come  forward  as  the  leaders  of  the  public  voice,  the  nation  would, 
in  an  hour,  grow  too  great  for  the  chains  that  now  shackle  you,  and 
the  Union  must  be  repealed  without  commotion  and  without  difficulty. 
Let  the  most  timid  amongst  us  compare  the  present  probability  of 
repealing  the  Union,  with  the  prospect  that  in  the  year  1795  existed 
of  that  measure  being  ever  brought  about.  Who,  in  1795,  thought 
an  Union  possible  ?  Pitt  dared  to  attempt  it,  and  he  succeeded  ;  it 
only  requires  the  resolution  to  attempt  its  Repeal — in  fact,  it  requires 
only  to  entertain  the  hope  of  repealing  it,  to  make  it  impossible  that 
the  Union  should  continue ;  but  that  pleasing  hope  could  never 
exist,  whilst  the  infernal  dissensions  on  the  score  of  religion  were 
kept  up.  The  Protestant  alone  could  not  expect  to  liberate  his 
country — the  Roman  Catholic  alone  could  not  do  it — neither  could 
the  Presbyterian — but  amalgamate  the  three  into  the  Irishman,  and 
the  Union  is  repealed.  Learn  discretion  from  your  enemies — they 
have  crushed  your  country  by  fomenting  religious  discord — serve  her 
by  abandoning  it  for  ever.  Let  each  man  give  up  his  share  of  the 
mischief — let  each  man  forsake  every  feeling  of  rancour.  But,  I  say 
not  this  to  barter  with  you,  my  countrymen — I  require  no  equivalent 
from  you — whatever  course  you  shall  take,  my  mind  is  fixed — I  trample 
under  foot  the  Catholic  claims,  if  they  can  interfere  with  the  Repeal ; 
I  abandon  all  wish  for  emancipation,  if  it  delays  that  Repeal. 
Nay,  were  Mr.  Perceval,  to-morrow,  to  offer  me  the  Repeal  of  the 
Union,  upon  the  terms  of  re-enacting  the  entire  penal  code,  I  declare 
it  from  my  heart,  and  in  the  presence  of  my  God,  that  I  would  most 


DANIEL    O  CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  55 

cheerfully  embrace  his  offer.  Let  us  then,  my  beloved  countrymen, 
sacrifice  our  wicked  and  groundless  animosities  on  the  altar  of  our 
country — let  that  spirit  which  heretofore  emanating  from  Dungannon 
spread  all  over  the  island,  and  gave  light  and  liberty  to  the  land,  be 
again  cherished  amongst  us — let  us  rally  round  the  standard  of  Old 
Ireland,  and  we  shall  easily  procure  that  greatest  of  political  bless- 
ings, an  Irish  King,  an  Irish  House  of  Lords,  and  an  IJrish  House  of 
Commons. — (Long-continued  applause.) 

"  After  Mr.  O'Connell  had  concluded  his  speech.  Sir  James 
Eiddall  observed,  that  calumny  or  misrepresentation  might  be  exer- 
cised upon  Mr.  O'Connell's  expression  of  an  Irish  king,  and  he, 
therefore,  was  happy  to  give  Mr.  O'Connell  an  opportunity  of  doing 
justice  to  our  most  gracious  sovereign.  Mr.  O'Connell  ardently 
availed  himself  of  the  occasion  to  pay  a  very  grateful  tribute  to  the 
virtues  and  patriotism  of  his  majesty,  and  observed,  that  if  ever  a 
monarch  existed,  abounding  in  every  great  and  good  qualification, 
calculated  to  make  his  people  happy,  that  monarch  was  George  the 
Third. 

"  Sir  James  Riddall  then  put  the  question  separately,  that  the  ad- 
dress and  petition  should  stand  the  address  and  petition  of  the  meet- 
ing, which  was  carried  unanimously. 

"  Mr.  Hutton  then  proposed  that  a  committee  of  twenty-one  be 
chosen  as  a  standing  committee  to  co-operate  with  the  other  meetings 
throughout  the  kingdom,  which  was  unanimously  agreed  to,  and  a 
committee  was  appointed  accordingly. 

"  Nicholas  Mahon  rose,  and  spoke  to  the  following  effect : — Mr. 
Sheriff,  the  respect  I  feel  for  the  opinions  of  several  gentlemen  pre- 
sent, whose  liberality  I  respect,  and  by  whose  exertions  this  meeting 
(which  I  trust  will  produce  the  happiest  result),  has  been  called,  has 
induced  me  to  undertake  the  task  of  subscribing  to  your  two  resolu- 
tions, which  I  hold  in  my  hand,  expressive  of  approbation  of  the 
conduct  of  his  Grace  the  Duke  of  Richmond,  since  his  appointment 
to  the  government  of  this  country.  I  beg  leave,  in  making  this 
motion,  to  be  distinctly  understood  as  not  approving  of  the  measures 
of  the  administration  to  which  his  grace  is  attached,  which  I  consider 
as  most  hostile  to  the  welfare  of  those  countries  ;  but  no  one  can  deny 
his  grace  the  possession  of  many  amiable  social  virtues,  and  that  he 
wields  the  sword  of  power  in  mercy  and  clemency.  Without  further 
preface,  I  move  you,  sir,  that  those  resolutions  be  now  read. 

"  Sir  James  Riddall,  high  sheriff,  having  quitted  the  chair,   and 


5^,  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

Robert  Shaw,  Esq.,  (now  Sir  R.  Shaw,  Bart.,)  beingT  called  thereto, 
moved,  that  the  thanks  of  this  assembly  be  presented  to  the  worthy 
high  sheriff  for  his  upright  and  impartial  conduct  in  the  chair.  He 
said  the  conduct  of  our  worthy  high  sheriff  was  his  best  eulogium 
for  complying  with  the  wishes  of  his  fellow-citizens. 

"  The  resolution  of  thanks  to  the  high  sheriff  was  seconded  by 
Counsellor  M'Nally,  who  said — I  feel  myself  proud  to  bear  testimony 
to  the  upright  and  impartial  conduct  of  the  high  sheriff,  whom 
he  had  known  many  years  as  a  respectable  citizen  and  trader  in 
Dublin.  In  his  public  and  private  capacity,  he  has  acted  in  such  a 
manner,  as  reflects  the  highest  honour  on  himself.  He  said,  the 
petition  to  the  king  met  his  warmest  approbation.  He  said,  the  fatal 
effects  of  the  Union  were  demonstrated  by  the  great  number  of  commis- 
sions of  bankruptcy,  which  had,  since  the  passing  of  the  Act  of  Union 
issued ;  and,  within  the  last  two  years,  the  act  of  insolvency,  which 
has  affected  the  credit  of  the  traders  of  this  city.  If  any  person 
was  to  inspect  the  books  of  the  shopkeepers  of  this  city,  they  would 
see  the  effect  of  the  general  calamity  of  the  times.  He  said  the 
king  of  England  was,  by  the  common  law  of  the  land,  from  the  time 
of  King  Henry  II.,  King  of  Ireland.  He  said  there  was  no  man  who 
loves  his  country  that  would  not  exert  every  constitutional  and  legal 
means  to  attain  a  Repeal  of  the  Act  of  Union. 

"  Sir  James  Riddall  having  left  the  chair,  and  Robert  Shaw,  Esq., 
M.P.,  being  called  thereto,  the  thanks  of  the  meeting  were  unanimously 
voted  to  Sir  James,  for  his  independent  and  constitutional  conduct  in 
calling  the  meeting,  and  for  the  excellent  manner  in  which  he  had 
presided  in  the  chair — and  that  a  piece  of  plate,  value  one  hundred 
guineas,  should  be  presented  to  him,  which  was  carried  unanimously. 

"  Mr.  Willis  rose  to  express  his  hearty  concurrence  to  the  last 
resolution  ;  he  said  that  when  the  present  high  sheriff  was  dead  and 
rotten  in  his  grave,  his  grandchildren  might  say,  how  impartially 
and  properly  he  discharged  his  duty. 

"  Sir  James  Riddall  returned  the  assembly  his  thanks  for  the 
honour  conferred  on  him  this  day  by  his  fellow-citizens,  and  said 
that  nothing  could  ever  induce  him  to  sell  his  fellow-citizens. 
He  thanked  the  assembly  for  their  very  proper  conduct  this 
day." 

We  shall  only  add  here  one  passage  from  a  speech  of  a 
member  of  the  corporation,  Mr.  Heffernan  (on  another  occa- 


1 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,   ESQ.,   M.P.  57 

sion,  in  the  year  1810,)  which  were  well  spoken  at  any  of  our 
meetings  now  : — 

"  Were  ive  to  contemplate  the  Union  as  a  measure  impossible 
to  be  repealed,  it  tvould  be  at  once  to  reduce  this  country  to 
despair ;    it   looidd   be    to   deprive    us    of  our    only    hope ;  for, 

HOWEVER  DIFFICULT,  HOWEVER  INSURMOUNTABLE  IT  MAY 
APPEAR,  YET  THE  IDEA  OF  BEHOLDING  A  RESIDENT  PARLIA- 
MENT AMONGST  US,  IS  CHERISHED  BY  EVERY  HONEST  IRISH- 
MAN. Heaven  knows  if  we  have  not  had  enough  of 
A  FOREIGN  ONE  !  We  ouce  thought  it  icould  be  impossible  to 
carry  the  Union  ;  in  that  opinion  ice  deceived  ourselves — it  icas 
carried.      We  now  feel  the  lamentable  effects  of  it  ;    yet,    what 

was  LOST  by  corruption,  CANNOT  VIRTUE  AND  PATRIOTISM 
RESTORE  ?  If  this  COUNTRY  BE  UNANIMOUS  IN  DEMAND- 
ING A  RESTORATION  OF  THAT  INDEPENDENCE,  IT  IS  IMPOSSI- 
BLE TO  DOUBT  BUT  SUCH  DEMAND  MUST  BE  SUCCESSFUL." 

What  truth,  what  power,  what  justice  were  there  not  in 
these  words — words  of  a  Protestant — we  believe  of  an  Orange- 
man — but  eminently  words  of  an  Irishman  !  And  if  these  noble 
aspirations  had  likelihood  of  success  before  them,  in  that  day 
of  division  and  prostration  of  the  public  mind  in  Ireland ;  what 
may  not  be  the  hopes — nay,  the  certainty  entertained  in  this 
our  day,  when  the  national  mind  has  been  so  aroused,  and,  thank 
heaven  for  it,  is  beginning  to  be  so  united. 

The  Irish  breast  in  which  these  words  will  not  awaken  an 
echo,  must  be  the  breast  of  a  dastard. 

The  editorial  articles  which  appeared  in  the  newspaper  we 
have  quoted  from,  during  the  summer  and  autumn,  and, 
indeed^  the  winter  months  of  1810,  would  do  credit  to  the 
patriotism  and  talent  even  of  the  present  proprietor  of  the 
Freeman.  There  was  an  energy  and  a  sustained  vigour  per- 
vading them  which,  independent  of  the  similarity  of  the  present 
struggle,  render  their  perusal  interesting  and  impressive,  even 
now,  and  must  have  made  their  effect  very  considerable  at  the 
time. 

It  is,  alas  !  in  Ireland,  "  an  old  tale,  and  soon  told,"  how 
the  mustering  of  national  sentiment  in  that  year,  full  of  strong 


58  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

and  high  hope,  and  cheering  promise  as  it  was,  eventually  came 
to  nought,  and  was  dissipated  as  utterly  as  the  fog-drift  before 
the  breeze. 

It  received  its  first  blow  from  the  diversion  created  in  the 
public  mind,  by  the  finally  decisive  manifestations  of  George  the 
Third's  insanity.  The  intrigues,  negotiations,  and  manoeuvres 
that  that  event,  and  its  necessary  consequence,  the  constructing 
of  a  Regency,  gave  birth  to,  distracted  men's  attention,  and  for 
a  time  created  an  utter  confusion  among  the  various  parties  in 
both  kingdoms.  But  all  parties  in  England,  however  they  might 
dispute  and  divide  amongst  themselves,  had  too  strong  an  interest 
in  preventing  a  recurrence  of  the  approach  to  unity  and  nation- 
ality of  feeling,  which  had  been  witnessed  in  Ireland,  on  the 
subject  of  Repeal,  to  allow  of  any  very  long  suspension  of  the 
old  tactics  of  misgovernment,  in  the  latter  unfortunate  country. 
To  break  up  the  incipient  coalition  of  Protestants  and  Catholics, 
every  means,  however  base,  were  accordingly  most  unscrupu- 
lously put  in  operation. 

Party  and  religious  differences  were  again  appealed  to. 
Bigotry  was  inflamed — selfishness  was  alarmed  and  irritated 
— in  short,  all  the  old  means  of  dividing  and  disuniting 
were  resorted  to,  which,  in  hateful  alternation  with  cruel  and 
tyrannous  violence,  have  marked  the  whole  career  of  English 
administration  in  this  unhappy  land !  And  these  execrable 
means  succeeded  then,  as  often  before  and  more  than  once  since, 
only  too  fatally  and  surely. 

It  cannot  rightfully  be  considered  a  desire  on  our  parts  to 
revive  irritating  remembrances,  if  we  say  that  the  Catholic 
party  were  not  to  blame  for  this  disaster.  It  is  not  claiming  for 
them  any  very  excessive  degree  of  public  virtue  to  say  so ;  for 
it  undoubtedly  was  their  interest  that  factions  and  parties  in 
Ireland  should  intermingle  and  coalesce.  By  the  regeneration 
of  their  country,  their  condition  should  inevitably  be  raised  and 
advanced. 

The  experience  of  the  period  from  1782  to  1800  had 
shown  that  a  constitution  extended  but  to  a  party  in  the  state, 
which,  like  an  edifice  erected  on  too  narrow  a  foundation,  would 
fall  in  ruin  before  the  first  tempest.  The  admission,  therefore, 
of  the  Catholics  to  entire  political,  social,  and  religious  equality, 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  59 

would,  in  the  event  of  Ireland's  recovery  of  her  birthright,  be  a 
matter  of  necessity,  if  not  of  good  will. 

The  Catholics  had,  thus,  every  reason  to  desire  a  union 
amongst  Irishmen  of  all  creeds  and  classes ;  and,  having  every 
reason,  of  course  spared  no  effort  that  could  accomplish  this 
object,  and  carefully  avoided  everything  that  might  tend  to 
obstruct  it.  It  is,  therefore,  on  the  other  classes  of  Irishmen 
that  the  blame  lies  of  the  unsuccessful  national  movement  of  1810. 

The  Catholics  of  Ireland  have  some  right  to  address  to  those 
of  their  Protestant  fellow-countrymen  who  yet  hold  off  from  the 
national  struggle,  a  mild  but  firm  expostulation.  They  may 
remind  them  that  Ireland's  rio^ht  of  self-legislation  was  estab- 
lished,  secured,  and  most  frequently  vindicated  in  Catholic 
times.  The  Catholic  parliament  of  Kilkenny,  in  1642,  and  that 
of  King  James  the  Second,  repeated  and  re-asserted  Ireland's 
right  in  this  respect,  against  the  encroachments  which,  in  the 
course  of  time,  England  had  made  by  the  statute  generally 
known  as  "  Poyning's  Law." 

When  the  Catholics  sunk  out  of  the  constitution,  after  the 
establishment  in  Ireland  of  the  revolutionary  government  and 
the  blackhearted  infraction  of  the  Limerick  treaty,  they  left  a 
state  weakened  indeed,  and  distracted  by  long-continued  civil 
dissensions  (for  which,  however,  they  were  not  responsible) ;  but 
still  a  state  in  all  the  rights  and  prerogatives  of  such.  Ireland 
had  her  own  parliament  fully  amd  regularly  constituted  and 
established — she  had  her  own  laws,  made  according  to  the 
particular  emergencies  of  her  condition — she  had  her  commerce 
free,  at  least  with  foreign  countries — she  had  her  manufactures 
unfettered,  and  giving  those  signs  of  genial  and  hearty  vitality, 
despite  the  wasting  effects  of  civil  wars,  that  the  historian 
Barlow  thus  records : — 

"  From  the  establisliment  of  the  act  of  settlement  and  explanation 
(after  Chai'les  the  Second's  restoration),  Ireland  rapidly  increased  in 
wealth  and  improvement,  to  the  admiration  and  envy  of  her  neigh- 
bours, till  she  was  again  laid  waste  by  the  revolutionary  wars  under 
William  the  Third ;  and  even  from  this  calamity  she  was  recovering 
with  such  quickness,  that  in  1698  the  balance  of  trade  in  her  favour 
amounted  to  four  or  five  hundred  thousand  pounds." — Vol.  i.  p.  290. 


60  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

In  short,  she  was  a  nation ;  though  a  distracted,  a  divided, 
and  a  sorely-oppressed  one. 

Then  followed  a  century  of  degradation ;  from  which  at  last 
the  Catholics  emerged,  though  but  for  a  brief  period,  in  1779- 
1782,  when  they  found  their  country  maimed  in  her  legislative 
rights,  crippled  in  her  commerce,  restricted  grievously,  cruelly, 
most  unjustly  in  her  manufactures.  Not  allowing  their  minds 
to  dwell  on  the  fact,  that  this,  her  low  condition,  was  but  the 
result  of  concessions  made  to  England  by  those  of  the  dominant 
creed,  in  order  to  gain  support  for  an  unchristian  ascendancy, 
the  Catholics  lent  their  aid  to  change  the  face  of  matters,  and 
then  went  back  quietly  to  their  chains,  to  await  freedom  from 
the  gratitude  of  their  Protestant  fellow-countrymen. 

When  at  length  the  Irish  Catholics  (thanks  to  their  own 
efforts)  were  finally  restored  to  the  constitution,  they  found  their 
country  nearly  altogether  robbed  of  her  manufactures  and  com- 
merce, bankrupt  in  monies,  and  long  plundered  of  that  which 
alone  could  give  a  hope  of  her  being  upraised  again — her  native 
parliament. 

"  Protestants  of  Ireland,"  they  are  entitled  to  say,  "  these 
losses,  sufferings,  disasters  of  our  comm.on  country  came  upon 
her  while  you,  only  you,  had  charge  and  control  of  her  interests. 
Let  us  forget  the  past — let  us  forget  all — even  all  you,  as  a  part^ 
in  the  state,  have  inflicted  on  us,  with  the  aid  of  your  English 
allies — and  let  us  now,  once  for  all  and  for  ever,  join  hearts  and 
hands  to  work  out  the  common  good  of  all — the  restoring 
Ireland  to  her  rights,  privileges,  and  powers  as  a  nation !" 

Returning  from  this  pardonable  digression  to  our  subject, 
we  will  not  close  our  notice  of  the  year  1810  without  inserting 
two  documents  of  public  interest  and  importance  in  that  year. 
The  first,  the  declaration  of  the  Catholic  bishops  of  Ireland, 
called  forth  by  the  floating  rumours  of  a  "  veto  ;"  of  '■^securities" 
to  be  required  by  government ;  of  a  plan  of  stipends  for  the 
Catholic  clergy,  and  other  such  miserable  schemes  and  devices, 
rife  among  the  so-called  statesmen  of  England  to  the  present 
hour.  The  second  is  the  Catholic  petition  of  that  year,  drawn 
u})  by  Mr.  O'  Council : — 

"  At  a  meeting    of   the  Roman  Catholic  Prelates,  assembled   in 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P,  61 

Dublin,  on  the  24th  February,  1810,  the  following  resolutions  were 
unanimously  adopted : — 

"Resolved — 'That  it  is  the  undoubted  and  exclusive  right  of  Roman 
Catholic  bishops  to  discuss  and  decide  on  all  matters  appertaining  to  the 
doctrine  and  discipline  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.' 

"Resolved — '  That  we  do  hereby  confirm  and  declare  our  unaltered  adhe- 
rence to  tlie  resolutions  unanimously  entered  into  at  our  last  general  meeting, 
on  the  14th  September,  1806.' 

"  Resolved — '  That  we  are  convinced  that  the  oath  of  allegiance  framed  and 
proposed  by  the  legislature  itself,  and  taken  by  us,  is  not  only  adequate  security 
for  our  loyalty,  but  that  we  know  of  no  stronger  pledge  than  we  can  possibly 
give. 

"  Resolved — '  That  having  disclaimed  upon  oath  all  right  in  the  pope,  or  any 
other  foreign  potentate  to  interfere  in  the  temporal  concerns  of  the  kingdom, 
an  adherence  to  the  practice  observed  in  the  appointment  of  Irish  Roman 
Catholic  bishops  cannot  tend  to  produce  an  undue  or  mischievous  exercise  of 
any  foreign  influence  whatsoever.' 

"Resolved — '  That  we  neither  seek  nor  desire  any  other  earthly  considera- 
tion for  our  spiritual  ministry  to  our  respective  flocks,  save  what  they  may, 
from  a  sense  of  religion  and  duty,  voluntarily  afford  us.' 

"Resolved — 'That  an  address,  explanatory  of  these  our  sentiments,  be 
prepared  and  directed  to  the  Roman  Catholic  clergy  and  laity  of  Ireland,  and 
conveying  such  further  instruction  as  existing  circumstances  may  seem  to 
require.' 


"  To  the  Honourable  the  Commons  of  the  United  Kingdom  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland,  in  Parliament  assembled : 

"  We,  whose  names  are  hereunto  subscribed,  on  behalf  of  ourselves  and  of 
others,  his  Majesty's  subjects,  professing  the  Roman  Catholic  religion  in 
Ireland,  humbly  beg  leave  to  represent  to  this  Honourable  House 

_  "That  we,  your  petitioners,  did,  in  the  years  1805  and  1808,  humbly  peti- 
tion this  honourable  house,  praying  the  total  abolition  of  the  penal  laws,  wliioh 
aggrieve  the  Catholics  of  Ireland. 

"  "We  now  feel  ourselves  obliged,  in  justice  to  ourselves,  our  families,  and 
our  country,  once  more  to  solicit  the  attention  of  this  honourable  house  to  the 
subject  of  our  said  petition. 

"  We  state,  that  tlie  Roman  Catholics  constitute  the  most  numerous  and 
increasing  portion  of  the  inhabitants  of  Ireland,  comprising  an  immense 
majority  of  the  manufacturing,  trading,  and  agricultural  interests,  and  amount- 
ing to  at  least  four-fifths  of  the  Irish  population  ;  that  they  contribute  largely 
to  the  exigencies  of  tlieir  country,  civil  and  military;  that  they  pay  the  far 
greater  part  of  the  public  and  local  taxes;  tliat  they  supply  the  armies  and 
navies  of  this  empire  with  upwards  of  one-third  part  in  number  of  the  soldiers 
and  sailors  employed  in  the  public  service;  and  that,  notwithstanding  heavy 
discouragements,  they  form  the  principal  constituent  part  of  the  streugth, 
wealth,  and  industry  of  Ireland. 

"  Yet  such  is  the  grievous  operation  of  the  penal  laws  of  which  we  complain, 
that  the  Roman  Catholics  are  tliereby  not  only  set  apart  from  their  fellowl 
subjects,  as  aliens  in  this  their  native  land,  but  are  ignominiously  and 
rigorously  proscribed  from  almost  all  situations  of  public  trust,   honour,   or 


02  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

emolument,  including  every  public  function  and  department,  from  the  houses  of 
legislature,  down  to  the  most  petty  corporations. 

' '  We  state,  that  whenever  the  labour  of  public  duty  is  to  be  exacted  and 
enforced,  the  Cathohc  is  sought  out  and  selected ;  where  honours  or  rewards 
are  to  be  dispensed,  he  is  neglected  and  contemned. 

"  Where  the  military  and  naval  strength  of  the  empire  is  to  be  recruited, 
the  Catholics  are  eagerly  solicited,  nay  compelled,  to  bear  at  least  their  full 
share  in  the  perils  of  warfare,  and  in  the  lowest  ranks ;  but  when  preferment 
or  promotion  (the  dear  and  legitimate  prize  of  successful  valour)  are  to  be 
distributed  as  rewards  of  merit,  no  laurels  are  destined  to  grace  a  Catholic's 
brow,  or  fit  the  wearer  for  command. 

' '  We  state,  thus  generally,  the  grievous  condition  of  the  Roman  Catholics  of 
Ireland,  occasioned  solely  by  the  fatal  influence  and  operation  of  the  penal  laws, 
and  though  we  forbear  to  enter  into  greater  detail,  yet  we  do  not  the  less  trust 
to  the  influence  of  reason  and  justice  (which  eventually  must  prevail)  for 
effecting  a  full  and  deliberate  inquiry  into  our  grievances,  and  accomplishing 
our  effectual  relief. 

"We  do  beg  leave,  however,  most  solemnly,  to  press  upon  the  attention  to 
this  honourable  house,  the  imminent  public  dangers  which  necessarily  result 
from  so  inverted  an  order  of  things,  and  so  vicious  and  unnatural  a  system  of 
legislation — a  system  which  has  long  been  the  reproach  of  this  nation,  and  is 
unparalleled  throughout  modern  Christendom. 

"And  we  state  it  as  our  fixed  opinion,  that  to  restore  to  the  Catholics  of 
Ireland,  a  full,  equal,  and  unqualified  participation  of  the  benefits  of  the  laws 
and  constitution  of  England,  and  to  withdraw  all  the  privations,  restrictions, 
and  vexatious  distinctions  which  oppress,  injure,  and  afflict  them  in  their 
country,  is  now  become  a  measure  not  merely  expedient,  but  absolutely 
necessary — not  only  a  debt  of  right  due  to  a  complaining  people,  but  perhaps 
the  last  remaining  resource  of  this  empire,  in  the  preservation  of  which  we 
take  so  deep  an  interest. 

' '  We  therefore  pray  this  honourable  house  to  take  into  their  most  serious 
consideration  the  nature,  extent,  and  operation  of  the  aforesaid  penal  laws,  and 
by  repealing  the  same  altogether,  to  restore  to  the  Roman  Catholics  of  Ireland 
those  liberties  so  long  withheld,  and  their  due  share  in  that  Constitution,  which 
they,  in  common  with  their  fellow-subjects  of  every  other  description,  contri- 
bute by  taxes,  arms,  and  industry,  to  sustain  and  defend. 

"  And  your  petitioners  will  ever  pray." 

The  year  1811  witnessed  a  considerable  activity  in  the 
Catholic  agitation.  Amongst  other  of  the  internal  controver- 
sies of  the  "  Catholic  Committee,"  there  had  been  a  revival  of 
the  old  dispute  as  to  the  propriety  of  continuing  to  petition. 
The  decision  had  been  for  so  continuing ;  and  the  late  Earl  of 
Fingall  was  named  to  be  the  bearer  of  the  petition  to  Eng- 
land. A  meeting  of  the  29th  December,  1810,  to  appoint 
some  gentlemen  to  accompany  him,  was  adjourned  to  the  5th 
January,  when  the  following  short  debate  took  place,  which  we 
give  here,  to  show  the  manner  in  which  the  agitation  was 
being  carried  on,  and  the  part  Mr.  O'Connell  was  taking  : — 


daniel  o'connell,  esq,,  m.p.  63 

"catholic  committee. 

"  Satui'day,  January  5. — Owen  O'Connor,  Esq.,  in  the  chair. 

"  Mr.  Hay  read  the  resolutions  of  the  last  meeting  ;  the  first  of 

which  related  to  the  examination  of  grievances  ;  the  second,  being 

the  order  of  the  day,  was  as  follows  : — 

"  Resolved — '  That  the  consideration  of  appointing  proper  persons  in  aid  of 
the  Earl  of  Fingall,  in  the  charge  of  the  petition  to  England,  be  adjourned  to 
Saturday,  the  3th  of  January,  1811.' 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  informed  the  Committee  that  considerable  progress 
had  been  made  in  the  investigation  of  the  existing  penal  laws,  and 
the  oppressive  consequences  resulting  therefrom.  As  the  statement 
occupied  nearly  three  hundred  folio  pages,  it  would  not,  from  its 
voluminous  nature,  be  perfectly  ready  for  their  inspection  before 
Saturday  next.  Notice  would  then  be  given  to  have  it  printed,  in 
order  to  place  it  in  the  hands  of  the  members  of  both  houses ;  and 
it  would  be  a  subject  of  consideration  with  the  committee,  whether 
the  statement  should  be  confined  to  the  members  of  parliament  alone, 
or  obtain  a  more  general  publicity.  He  had  no  hesitation  to  say,  that  in 
his  opinion,  the  preferable  mode  would  be  to  have  it  published  in  the 
usual  manner,  in  order  that  the  people  of  the  United  Kingdom  might 
be  enabled  to  entertain  no  doubt,  whatever,  on  the  subject.  For  it 
had  been  said  that  the  people  suffer  not  from  any  actual  or  positive 
oppression,  but  because  they  are  told  so.  He  had  no  difficulty  in 
saying  that  this  was  an  evil  they  ought  to  encounter,  and  the  im- 
portance of  informing  every  person  in  England  of  the  real  condition 
of  the  Catholics,  should  supersede  any  fastidious  notions  of  delicacy 
or  forbearance.  The  committee  would,  therefore,  consider,  whether 
they  should  agree  to  the  report  at  all ;  and  next,  what  degi-ee  of 
publicity  they  would  give  to  it.  Mr.  O'Connell  adverted  to  the  pro- 
priety of  calling  an  aggregate  meeting  of  the  Catholics,  for  the 
purpose  of  considering  the  expediency  of  an  address  to  the  Prince  of 
Wales.  The  intended  Regency,  he  said,  would  be  either  restricted 
or  unlimited — if  unlimited,  it  was  obvious  that  an  address  would  be 
highly  necessary ;  if  it  were  restricted,  and  Mr.  Percival,  as  a 
second  Oliver  Cromwell,  be  appointed  Lord  Protector  of  the  Eealm, 
they  ought,  at  least,  to  make  the  tender  of  their  hearts  and  hands  to 
his  Royal  Highness. 

"Mr.  Plunkett  called  Mr.  O'Connell  to  order.  He  said,  the 
words  just  made  use  of  would  materially  injure  the  Catholic 
interest,  and  alluded,  in  pointed  terms,  to  the  newspapers  having 
taken  advantage  of  the  report  of  their  debates.     He  was  proceeding 


64  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

to  inquire  into  the  origin  of  those  reports,  when  it  appeared  to  be  the 
general  sense  of  the  meeting,  that  the  words  alluded  to  were  per- 
fectly consistent  with  order.  Mr.  O'Connell  proceeded.  He  said,  it 
was  manifest,  he  was  quite  correct  in  what  he  had  advanced  ;  but  the 
gentleman  had  been  calling  to  order,  by  his  own  admission,  persons 
who  were  not  speaking.  Mr.  O'Connell  concluded  by  an  eloquent 
repetition  of  his  attachment  and  devotion  to  the  Prince  of  Wales. 

"  Mr.  Hussey  moved  that  a  report  of  their  proceedings  should  not 
be  published. 

"  Mr.  Costigan  conceived,  that  as  their  proceedings  were  regular, 
constitutional,  and  right,  there  ought  to  be  no  objection  to  their  ap- 
pearing before  the  public. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  protested  against  the  converting  of  their  meeting 
into  a  secret  tribunal.  They  were  not  responsible  for  the  accuracy 
of  the  reports,  nor  were  they  capable  of  interdicting  them.  If  they 
shut  their  door,  government  might  charge  them  with  being  engaged 
in  some  dark  transaction,  or  secret  cabal.  He  entreated  them  not  to 
suffer  it  to  be  said,  that  they  shrunk  from  the  light  of  the  day.  He 
would  even  wish,  that  the  little  ebullitions  of  passion,  which  some- 
times prevailed  among  them,  should  go  abi'oad,  for  if  they  related  to 
the  public,  it  was  proper  that  the  public  should  know  them,  and  if 
themselves,  it  would  have  the  good  effect  of  teaching  them  dignity 
and  decorum,  by  avoiding  the  repetition  of  them.  It  was  not  at 
this  moment  they  should  conceal  their  proceedings,  when  the  foulest 
calumnies  were  uttered  against  them,  and  when,  for  the  first  time  in 
a  series  of  years,  persons  were  hired  for  the  purpose  of  promoting 
their  propagation. 

"  Mr.  Finn  said,  the  argument  in  favour  of  the  publication  of  their 
proceedings,  certainly  outweighed  those  which  might  be  urged 
against  it.  He  observed,  that  one  of  the  newspapers  had  endeavoured 
to  throw  an  odium  on  their  proceedings,  by  printing  the  word 
' secret^ 

"Mr.  Hussey  said,  he  had  been  induced  by  several  respectable 
gentlemen  to  make  the  present  motion.  It  was  his  wish  to  distin- 
guish the  frivolous  from  the  more  important  matter  of  their  debate, 
and  to  move  that  the  latter  only  should  meet  the  public  eye.  They 
were,  he  said,  reduced  to  this  awkward  dilemma,  that  if  their 
speeches  were  published,  they  were  said  to  be  inflammatory  ;  and  if 
they  were  suppressed,  the  committee  was  then  engaged  in  some  dark 
transaction.  Between  the  two  calumnies  he  should  succumb  to  the 
former,  and  withdraw  his  motion. 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,  M.P.  65 

*'  Mr.  Costigan  called  the  attention  of  the  committee  to  the 
business  of  the  day,  which  was  to  consider  the  propriety  of  appointing 
delegates  to  accompany  Lord  Fingal  in  the  charge  of  the  petition  to 
England.  He  said  he  could  not  see  the  propriety  of  sending  any 
person,  whatever,  with  Lord  Fingal — if  he  did,  he  certainly  would 
concur  with  the  gentleman  who  proposed  it.  It  was  understood 
there  was  to  be  no  Veto,  no  condition,  '  no  mincing  of  emanci- 
pation ;'  and,  therefore,  six  or  seven  gentlemen,  accompanying  Lord 
Fingal  would  be  no  further  use  to  his  lordship,  than  showing  him  the 
way  to  the  members'  houses,  which  it  was  presumed  he  knew  very  well 
without  them.  It  required  no  particular  talent  or  assistance  to  say, 
here  is  the  petition  of  five  millions  of  persons,  who  pray  for  com- 
plete emancipation,  and  have  nothing  to  concede.'  Mr.  Costigan 
expatiated  on  this  part  of  the  subject,  and  said,  the  gentlemen  accom- 
panying Lord  Fingal  might  probably  have  some  cunning  questions 
put  to  them  by  Lord  Grenville,  and  all  the  benefit  they  would  derive 
from  their  mission,  would  be,  to  be  sent  back  insulted  and  calum- 
niated. With  respect  to  the  address,  he  said,  it  ought,  certainly,  to 
emanate  from  the  people,  and  an  aggregate  meeting  should  be  accord- 
ingly convened.  He  expressed  his  apprehension,  that  with  a  limited 
regency  the  prince  could  efi*ect  nothing  in  their  favour.  Some 
opposition  appearing  to  this  sentiment,  Mr.  Costigan  regretted  he 
was  not  so  sanguine  as  others  on  this  subject,  and  concluded  by 
moving,  as  an  amendment — '  that  the  consideration  of  appointing 
proper  persons  in  aid  of  the  Earl  of  Fingal,  in  the  charge  of  the 
petition  to  England,  be  adjourned  for  another  fortnight.'  This 
amendment  was  seconded  by  Mr.  O'Connell,  which,  after  a  long 
and  animated  debate,  was  carried  by  a  majority  of  three," 

The  adjourned  meeting  we  also  give,  not  because  of  any 
important  result  there  come  to,  but  because  the  discussion  at  it 
tends  further  to  elucidate  the  objects  with  which  we  have  given 
the  former  extract.  It  will  be  seen  that  Mr.  O'Connell's 
leadership  was  virtually  established,  though  not  in  words  ac« 
knowledged. 

"  CATHOLIC    COMMITTEE. 

"  Saturday,  January  19 The  Hon.  Charles  Ffrench,  in  the  Chair. 

"Mr.  O'Connell  announced  to  the  committee  his  intention  of  moving 
that  the  subjects  that  were  intended  for  this  day's  discussion,  namely 
the  consideration  of  addressing  his  Royal  Highness  the  Prince  of  Wales, 

F 


66  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

and  also,  that  the  appointment  of  an  additional  delegation,  be  post- 
poned for  a  fortnight.  He  said,  that  at  the  present  moment,  they 
were  not  apprized,  whether  a  regency  had  actually  taken  place  or 
not ;  in  this  state  of  uncertainty,  he  conceived,  that  any  delegation 
to  England  would  be  not  only  unnecessary,  but  worse  than  useless^ 
for  it  could  only  tend  to  expose  the  delegates  to  disrespect  and 
obloquy.  "With  that  view  of  the  case,  he  should  propose  an  adjourn- 
ment of  the  delegation  question.  With  respect  to  the  address,  he 
observed,  that  circumstances  were  still  in  the  same  state.  The  pro- 
ceedings on  the  regency  had  been  delayed  by  ministers  from 
interested  motives,  which  might  probably  urge  them  to  continue"  the 
suspense  for  three  months  longer.  By  postponing  the  consideration 
of  this  question  for  a  fortniglit,  they  would  have  an  opportunity  of 
knowing  the  real  sitituation  of  affairs  ;  he  was,  at  the  same  time, 
ready  to  admit,  that  they  ought  to  be  among  the  foremost  in  express- 
ing their  zealous  attachment  to  his  royal  highness.  Mr.  O'Connell 
adverted  to  the  Corporation  of  Dublin,  who,  he  said,  could  see  no 
virtue  in  the  prince  when  out  of  power,  but  as  soon  as  he  was  likely 
to  obtain  it,  would  ^adorn  him  with  all  imaginable  graces.  Wlien 
that  moment  should  arrive,  he  would  become  ornamental  in  their 
sight,  and  while  the  rays  of  glory  could  shed  the  light  of  emolument, 
the  lowest  curs  in  the  corporation  would  be  found  turning  round  and 
fawning  on  him. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  concluded  with  an  eloquent  assurance  of  his 
royal  highness's  recollection  of  the  former  services  of  the  people  of 
Ireland ;  and  moved,  that  the  consideration  of  an  address,  and  the 
appointment  of  an  additional  delegation  be  postponed  for  a  fortnight. 

"  Mr.  Hussey  seconded  the  motion. 

"  Mr.  Cassin,  adverted  to  the  subject  of  an  aggregate  meeting* 
to  consider  the  pi'opriety  of  continuing  or  withdrawing  the  petition, 
in  consequence  of  the  recent  changes  in  public  affairs  ;  and  observed, 
that  circumstances  might  arise,  which  would  obviate  the  necessity  of 
such  a  measure.  He  said,  a  clause  might  be  enacted  by  parliament, 
to  prevent  any  extension  of  benefit  to  Dissenters  on  the  part  of  the 
Regent,  similar  to  that  which  took  place  in  1789,  during  the 
administration  of  Mr.  Pitt.  He  supposed,  that  in  the  event  of  Mr. 
Wilberforce,  or  any  other  member  proposing  such  a  clause  upon  the 
present  occasion,  Mr.  Perceval  would  not  be  backward  in  promoting 
its  adoption  ;  and  in  that  case,  the  expediency  of  presenting  their 
petition,  would  remain  in  full  force.  He  conceived,  at  all  events, 
that  the  convening  of  an  aggi'egate  meeting,  at  the  present  moment, 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P,  67 

would  be  premature,  and  recommended  the  Catholics  to  pause  until 
they  should  hear  his  royal  highness's  speech  in  parliament. 

"  Mr.  O'Gorman  said,  in  his  opinion,  a  moment  should  not  be  lost 
in  forwarding  the  petition,  which  he  considered  as  not  incompatible 
with  the  address.  The  petition,  as  well  as  the  address,  would  give 
his  royal  highness  an  opportunity  of  showing  his  attachment  to  the 
Catholics  of  Ireland,  and  he  (Mr.  O'Goi'man)  would  accordingly  wish 
to  have  both  the  one  and  the  other  on  the  table  of  the  House  of 
Commons.  If  circumstances  should  oblige  the  prince  to  give  an 
unfavourable  answer,  there  would  be  a  paramount  necessity  of  pre- 
senting the  petition,  if  it  were  only  for  the  purpose  of  promoting 
discussion,  which  must  always  have  a  favourable  tendency  to  their 
cause.  In  the  event  of  a  favourable  answer,  by  presenting  their 
petition,  they  will  have  only  done  their  duty,  and  the  prince's 
ministers  will  have  an  opportunity  of  anticipating  its  merits. 

"  The  question  of  adjournment  was  then  loudly  called  for.  Mr. 
Keogh,  jun.,  begged  leave  to  ask  Mr.  O'Connell,  whether  it  was  his 
intention,  that  the  consideration  of  an  address  to  the  Prince  of 
Wales  should  be  discussed  by  this  committee,  or  by  an  aggregate 
meeting  of  the  Catholics. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  said,  it  was  not  for  him  to  lead  the  public  opinion 
anywhere.  He  should  subscribe  to  whatever  may  be  the  determina- 
tion of  the  committee,  but  at  present  he  could  give  no  decided  opinion 
on  the  subject. 

"  Mr.  Keogh  said,  he  should  always  happy  to  coincide  with  Mr. 
O'Connell,  and  was  desirous  that  no  division  should  take  place  on 
the  present  occasion ;  but  he  should  be  under  the  necessity  of 
opposing  the  motion  of  adjournment  if  a  distinct  answer  were  not 
given  to  his  question.  He  wished  it  to  be  understood  that  the  com- 
mittee having  been  appointed  to  prepare  the  petition  only,  had  no 
right  to  address  the  Prince  of  Wales,  which  was  an  act  to  which  the 
people  were  competent.  The  sense  of  the  people,  he  conceived, 
ought  to  be  taken  on  both  questions,  that  of  petition  and  of  address, 
in  consequence  of  the  strange  occurrences  that  had  happened  since 
the  resolution  of  petitioning  had  passed.  He  hoped  the  committee 
were  not  afraid  to  face  their  constituents.  He  said  he  wished  not  to 
oppose  Mr.  O'Connell  in  anything  he  should  offer,  and  was  disposed 
to  agree  to  the  present  motion  of  adjournment,  provided  it  appeared 
that  no  attempt  was  to  be  made  to  escape  from  the  people. 

'*  Mr.  O'Gorman  was  of  opinion,  that  the  consideration  of  matters 
referred  to  by  Mi".  Keogh,  should  be  deferred  for  a  fortnight.  He 
said  it  did  not  appear,  from  any  resolution  before  them,  whether  it 
was  intended  that  the  address  should  emanate   from  the  people  or 


68  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

from  tlie  committee.  He  differed  from  Mr.  Keogh'a  position  in  toto, 
and  contended  that  the  committee  had  an  undoubted  right  to  address 
the  Prince  of  Wales,  though  he  was  willing  to  acknowledge  that  the 
preference  should  be  given  to  the  convening  of  an  aggregate  meeting 
for  that  purpose ;  and  as  to  the  question  of  petition,  he  considered 
it  would  be  ungracious  to  go  back  to  the  people  and  desire 
them  to  re-consider  what  they  had  already  fully  entrusted  to  the 
committee. 

"  Mr.  Clinch  said,  that  Mr.  O'Gorman  appeared  to  mistake  the 
principle  of  the  present  discussion.  That  gentleman  had  stated  that 
the  committee  was  competent  to  call  an  aggregate  meeting  for  the 
purpose  of  addressing  the  Prince  of  Wales,  but  thinks,  at  the  same 
time,  that  to  refer  to  the  people  the  subject  of  petitioning  parliament, 
would  be  ungracious  and  improper — as  if  the  committee  could  bind 
the  people,  in  this  latter  point,  by  the  resolution  which  was  passed  in 
November  last.  It  had,  however,  been  distinctly  stated  by  Mr. 
Keogh  that  new  occurrences  had  taken  place  since  that  period ;  and 
there  could  be  no  doubt,  therefore,  that  the  committee,  as  trustees  for 
the  Catholics,  were  perfectly  warranted  in  going  back  to  their^consti- 
tuents,  to  consult  with  them  on  the  propriety  of  petitioning,  under  the 
altered  circumstances  of  the  country.  But  could  anything  be  more 
absurd  than  that  the  committee  should  say,  '  we  wiU  petition  and 
you  can't  prevent  us?'  With  respect  to  the  address,  it  might  be 
justly  asked,  why  it  did  not  come  with  the  same  pomp  and  form  as 
the  petition  ?  and  in  every  view  of  the  subject  he  was  of  opinion, 
that  the  people  ought,  under  the  present  peculiar  circumstances  of 
the  country,  to  be  again  consulted.  If  an  aggregate  meeting  be 
allowed  to  consider  the  propriety  of  an  address  to  the  Prince  of 
Wales,  they  would  necessarily  connect  it  with  the  subject  of 
petitioning.  The  principle  argument  to  be  deduced  from  the  present 
inquiry  was,  that  the  setting  up  of  a  separate  jurisdiction  would  be 
both  uncandid  and  injudicious. 

"  Mr.  Hussey  really  hoped  that  there  would  have  been  an  unani- 
mous concurrence  in  the  propriety  of  adjourning.  The  discussion  of 
the  present  subject  ought  to  be  deferred  for  a  fortnight,  when  Mr. 
Keogh  would  doubtless  receive  a  satisfactory  answer  to  his  questions. 
He  would  just  mention  that  if  any  member  Avas  afraid  to  show  his 
face  to  an  aggregate  meeting,  he  ought  never  to  show  it  in  public 
again.  In  order  to  procure  unanimity,  he  thought  it  would  be 
advisable  to  take  measures  for  convening  aggregate  meetings  all  over 
Ireland.  He  would  inform  Mr.  Keogh,  that  if  any  plan  could  be 
adopted  to  collect   the  Catholics  together  in   one  place,  he  would 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  69 

gladly  concur  in  it ;  but  lie  conceived  it  would  be  far  more  dignified, 
in  preparing  an  address,  to  obtain  a  deputation  of  ten  persons  from 
every  county  in  Ireland. 

'*Mr.  Keogh  said  he  would  not  be  puzzled  out  of  his  question,  and, 
therefore,  persisted  in  calling  for  a  distinct  answer  to  it.  He  wished 
to  have  it  fairly  understood  whether,  in  the  altered  state  of  public 
affairs,  the  committee  would  press  forward  the  petition  without  con- 
sulting the  i^eople. 

"Dr.  Drumgoole  and  Mr.  Costigan  addressed  the  chair  nearly 
at  the  same  time,  but  the  chairman  having  decided  in  favour  of  the 
latter  gentleman,  he  said,  that  to  what  had  fallen  from  Mr.  Hussey, 
he  would  just  observe,  that  it  was  from  aggregate  meetings  that 
every  advantage  to  the  Catholics  had  originally  emanated  ;  and  it  was 
in  the  metropolis  alone  that  such  a  meeting  could  acquire  any  im- 
portance. He  pledged  himself,  in  alluding  to  Mr.  Keogh's  question, 
that  in  a  fortnight  an  aggregate  meeting  should  be  called,  if  necessary, 
in  spite  of  any  opposition  from  the  committee. 

"  Dr.  Drumgoole  would  make  one  observation  to  what  appeared  to 
him  to  be  somewhat  extraordinary.  He  alluded  to  the  putting  of 
questions  across  the  table,  and  the  calling  on  individuals,  by  name, 
to  answer  them.  It  seemed  to  him  to  resemble  the  opposition  in 
parliament,  and  would  lead  to  an  idea  that  the  prime  minister 
reigned  among  them  for  the  purpose  of  regulating  the'"'  proceedings, 
He  would  beg  leave  to  inform  Mr.  Keogh  that  the  committee 
disclaimed  any  such  ascendancy  ;  and  had  no  intention  of  instituting 
either  leaders  or  followers  among  them  for  the  government  of  their 
conduct.  The  committee  had  a  right,  in  his  opinion,  to  address  the 
prince  ;  but  he  should  not  now  enter,  at  length,  into  the  reasons  of 
that  opinion;  having  been  appointed  to  manage  Catholic  affairs, 
they  were,  he  presumed,  competent  to  undertake  any  measure  they 
should,  in  their  discretion,  think  conducive  to  the  interests  of  the 
body  at  large.     (Cry  of  no,  no.) 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  concurred  with  Dr.  Drumgoole,  against  any 
opinion  going  forth,  that  the  Catholic  affairs  had  fallen  so  low,  as  to 
render  it  necessary  to  make  him  the  director  of  them.  He  proceeded 
to  say,  that  the  discussion  they  had  entered  into  was  irrelevant ;  for, 
as  the  Catholics  had  not  a  regular  constitutional  charter  for 
assembling  together,  it  was  evident  that  an  address  to  the  Prince  of 
Wales  would  not  derive  its  importance  from  any  meeting,  but  would 
carry  its  respectability  by  the  number  of  signatures  annexed  to  it 
He  disowned  the  insinuations  that  hud  been  thrown  out,  of  want  of 
candour   in  the   committee,  a    virtue  wliich  he   hoped   the    Catholics 


70  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

would  never  staud  in  need  of ;  but  he  conceived  it  would  evince  a 
want  of  candour  to  alFect  the  convention  of  an  aggregate  meet- 
ing, and  make  it  a  stalking  horse  for  other  purposes  than  what  were 
specified. 

"  Mr.  Keogh  said  that  he  had  put  the  question  individually  to 
Mr.  O'Connell,  solely  for  the  purpose  of  convenience.  He  thought 
that  gentleman's  motion  unexceptionable  ;  and  if  he  had  explained 
himself  in  such  a  manner  as  to  aflbrd  reason  to  expect  that  the 
people  should  be  appealed  to,  he  (Mr.  K.)  would  not  have  originated 
the  present  discussion.  Mr.  K.  would,  at  all  events,  vote  for  the 
adjournment,  and  hoped,  in  the  meantime,  he  should  hear  of  some 
gentleman  of  consequence  convening  the  Catholics  ;  and  he  con- 
sidered their  present  chairman  as  peculiarly  competent  to  effect  that 
object. 

"  The  question  of  adjournment  was  then  put  and  carried  unani- 
mously. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  gave  notice  of  a  motion  relative  to  the  propriety 
of  submitting  to  the  sub-committee  the  preparing  of  an  address  to  the 
Protestants  of  Ii'eland.  It  had  been  alleged,  and  the  notion  had 
gone  abroad,  that  the  Catholics  stifled  every  feeling  of  gratitude, 
and  recollected  only  the  evil  which  operated  against  them.  He 
would,  therefore,  wish  to  have  a  statement  laid  before  the  Pro- 
testdnts,  showing  them  that  the  benetit  of  the  Catholic  would  be 
beneficent  to  all,  and  the  necessity  that  existed,  for  their  own  safety, 
of  co-operating  in  the  attainment  of  their  mutual  advantage ;  a 
statement  which  should  inform  them  that  the  Catholic  hearts  were  not 
cold,  but  that  amid  the  hatred  which  they  felt  for  those  who  opposed 
tiiem,  they  cherished  a  grateful  recollection  of  theii'  Protestant 
advocates.  The  prevailing  opinion,  that  whatever  advantage  the 
Catholics  obtained  was  taken  from  the  Protestants,  was  a  prejudice 
that  ought  to  be  fully  corrected.  Mr.  O'Connell  concluded  by  giving 
notice  of  a  motion  of  an  address  to  the  Protestants  of  Ireland  on  the 
subject  of  the  objects  of  the  committee. 

"  Major  Bryan  was  called  to  the  chair,  when  the  thanks  of  the 
meeting  were  voted  to  the  Honourable  Charles  Ffrench,  for  his  proper 
conduct  in  the  chair." 

From  the  foregoing  the  reader  will  see  with  what  fond  hope 
the  Catholics  of  Ireland  looked  to  the  Priuce  of  Wales,  the  late 
George  the  Fourth  :  never  man  acted  more  basely  to  others,  than 
he  did  to  them.  He  deceived  and  flattered  them  as  prince  ; 
he  deceived,  abandoned,  and  spurned  them  as  monarch. 


DANIEL    o'CONNELL,    ESQ.,  M.P.  7l 

On  the  2d  of  February,  the  committee  again  met — N.  P. 
O' Gorman,  Esq.,  the  present  Assistant-Barrister  for  the  county 
Kilkenny,  in  the  chair.  The  proceedings  commenced  with  an 
angry  discussion,  excited  chiefly  by  Mr.  Cornelius  Keogh — the 
son  of  John  Keogh — who  objected,  (according  to  the  newspaper 
report,  "  to  the  introduction  of  any  business  which  would  allow 
the  country  gentlemen  to  act  at  that  meeting  as  managers,  and 
then  said  that  the  best  means  to  adjust,  satisfactorily,  the  point, 
was  to  read  the  various  resolutions  on  which  the  committee  was 
founded.  The  secretary  read  the  resolutions  of  the  19th  July, 
1810,  the  resolution  of  the  2nd  November,  1810,  and  (at  the 
suggestion  of  Counsellor  O' Council,  to  the  propriety  of  which 
Mr.  Keogh  acceded,)  the  secretary  read  the  subsequent  resolu- 
tion, relative  to  the  mode  of  appointing  country  gentlemen  to 
act  as  managers  for  petitioning  Parliament  in  behalf  of  the 
Catholics  of  Ireland." 

Mr.  Keogh  proceeded  to  object  that  the  committee  had  no 
authority  to  increase  the  number  of  its  members,  beyond  that 
fixed  by  the  aggregate  meeting  from  which  it  derived  authority 
to  move  in  the  matter  of  petitioning. 

In  the  discussion  on  this  objection,  a  rather  warm  collateral 
dispute  arose  between  Messrs.  Clinch  and  Hussey,  leading  mem- 
bers of  the  committee,  relative  to  a  recent  publication  of  a  part 
of  their  proceedings,  by  Mr.  Clinch.  This  will  explain  Mr. 
O'Connell's  allusion  to  the  "wranglings"  of  the  meeting. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell — Sir,  I  must  confess  that  this  resolution,  which 
the  gentleman,  la  m  sorry  to  find,  so  inflexibly  presses  on  your 
consideration,  is  a  breach  of  the  common  law  of  the  committee.  In 
order  to  avoid  the  bad  consequences  of  taking  the  meeting  by  sur- 
prise, it  was  necessary  to  give  notice  of  any  motion  which  might  be 
intended  to  be  made.  I  will  confidently  assert  that  no  resolution  has 
ever  been  passed  from  the  chair,  which  had  not  been  grounded  on  a 
preceding  notice.  The  gentleman  was  apprized  of  the  fact,  for  on 
the  last  day  of  meeting,  it  was  distinctly  stated  to  him  ;  in  point  of 
form,  then,  he  was  essentially,  and  indisputably  wrong. 

"  Mr.  Keogh — '  I  understand  order  better.' 

"Mr.  O'Connell — By  his  own  words,  the  gentleman  is  confessedly 
wrong.     Look  how  the  matter  stands.     The  gentleman  knew  it  was 


72  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

the  rule — but  did  he  give  notice,  or  can  he  denv  that  he  has  viohited 
it  ?  I  do  not  like  special  pleading ;  but  it  is  only  common  sense  to 
adhere  to  a  regulation  which  would  prevent  the  committee  from  being 
taken  by  surprise.  I  will  ask,  might  it  not  be  so  contrived  that  the 
important  business  of  three  years,  when  our  hopes  and  wishes  were 
on  the  point  of  consummation,  might  not  the  important  business  of 
three  vears  be  ovenumed  in  an  hour,  if  we  had  no  other  security 
than  a  hope,  confiding  in  the  honour  of  society  ?  What  has  been  the 
subject  of  this  long  debate  ?  I  have  the  greatest  respect  for  the  indi- 
viduals present :  and  I  do  not  mean  to  allude  to  the  subject  any 
further  than  to  show,  that  we  look  like  a  parcel  of  wrangling  school- 
boys, and  not  like  rational  men,  deliberating  on  the  fate  of  ourselves 
and  our  posterity — or  like  men  struggling  for  our  emancipation — 
struggling  to  become  what  we  are  entitled  to  by  the  common  rights 
of  nature,  by  the  constitution,  by  our  sufferings  and  our  merits.  I 
have  come  here  to-day,  not  to  occupy  yotir  time  in  jangling,  but  to 
assist  in  looking  for  my  own  liberty — I  have  come  here  to-day  to 
make  a  motion  of  the  first  importance,  namely,  to  have  our  jxrtition 
presented  to  Parliament — I  have  come  here  to-day  to  refute  the 
malignant  calumnies  of  our  enemies,  and  to  correct  the  mistakes  of 
our  enlightened  advocate.  Even  the  classic  pen  of  the  best  critic  of 
the  age  is  not  free  from  error :  I  allude  to  the  last  number  of  The 
Edinburgh  Rerieic.  In  it  the  writer  states,  and  laments  too,  that 
such  a  grievance  should  exist — that  there  are  forty  offices  under 
government,  from  which  Catholics  are  excluded.  But  when  this 
excellent  person  laments  that  four  millions  of  the  bravest  and  most 
meritorious  people  were  excluded  from  forty  offices  of  trust  and  emo- 
lument, what  would  have  been  his  indignation  if  he  had  known  what 
I  am  prepared  to  verify  by  documents,  that  there  are  one  thousand 
two  hundred  and  fifty-four  offices,  from  which  Catholics  are  excluded 
by  the  direct  operation  of  the  law  ;  and  that  there  are  thirty  thou- 
sand places,  from  which  they  are  excluded  by  its  consequences.  I 
am  prevented  from  imfolding  those  important  facts,  not  by  a  vote  of 
censure  against  those  persons  who  have  absented  themselves,  and 
have  not  participated  in  the  labour  of  the  Committee — but  by  a 
motion  to  stigmatize  your  conduct,  and  to  rescind  the  proceedings  of 
three  months  of  laborious  investigation.  I  do  not  wish  to  claim  any 
merit  for  my  services — yet  my  time  is  of  some  value  to  me,  and  I 
did  not  avoid  my  duty  when  my  country  required  my  services.  And 
yet,  how  are  the  important  labours  of  the  committee  to  be  rendered 
useless  r     Why,  by  clamour,  and  not  by  argument.    I  am  trespassing 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,  M.P.  73 

on  your  patience — but  I  am  so  impressed  with  the  importance  of  the 
subject,  that  I  must  declare  before  God,  that  feeling  what  appears  to 
me  to  be  true,  I  cannot  help  saying,  that  the  fate  of  Catholic  Eman- 
cipation will  depend  on  the  decision  of  this  day.  The  decision  will 
show  whether  you  are  a  degraded,  a  miserable,  and  a  divided  people, 
and,  consequently,  the  mangled  and  disabled  victim  of  your  enemies ; 
or  by  your  unanimity,  that  you  are  able  to  spread  discomfiture  through 
your  foes  ;  and  to  exhibit  to  the  world  the  glorious  proof  that  your 
claims  are  as  just  as  they  are  irresistible  (hear) — that  your  claims  are 
as  just  as  irresistible.  And  here,  sir,  I  call  on  the  gentleman,  in  the 
venerable  name  of  his  father,  that  he  will  not  divide  the  committee 
on  this  question,  nor  suffer  their  enemies  to  triumph  at  the  prospect 
of  disunion  among  the  Catholics.  If  the  gentleman  thinks  that  we 
ought  not  to  have  any  further  meetings,  let  him  come  fairly  and  give 
notice  of  his  intention  of  rescinding  our  proceedings — but  let  him  not 
afford  our  enemies  the  delight  of  witnessing  a  division  among  our- 
selves on  a  pitiful  question.  As  to  the  objections  which  the  gentle- 
man urged,  I  could  demonstrate  that  they  are  unfounded,  from  what 
he  would  acknowledge  to  be  sufficient  authority ;  but  I  sit  down 
with  the  hope  that  he  will  consent  to  the  retraction  of  his  motion, 
and  permit  the  business  of  the  day  to  go  forward." 

Mr.  Keogh's  objections  found,  however,  a  supporter  in  Lord 
Ffrench,  who,  after  a  digression,  attacking  the  "  lawyers"  of  the 
committee,  as  "  men  who  ought  to  be  suspected,  havino-  more  to 
expect  than  any  other  description  of  Catholics,"  declared  that 
the  only  way  to  "  put  down  these  lawyers,"  was  by  an  appeal  to 
the  people ;  and  for  that  purpose,  "  moved,  as  an  amendment  to 
Mr.  Keogh's  motion,  that  the  Catholic  concerns  be  referred  to 
an  aggregate  meeting,  to  be  held  that  day  fortnight." 

Lord  Ffrench's  attack  on  the  legal  gentlemen,  brought  up 
Mr.  Hussey  in  a  very  warm  and  vigorous  speech — retorting  the 
personalities  with  which  he  and  the  other  members  of  the  bar 
had  been  assailed,  and  powerfully  arguing  against  Mr.  Keoo-h's 
endeavour  to  shut  out  the  "country  gentlemen"  present,  from 
voting. 

"  Is  it  a  surprise,"  he  asked,  "  that  we  have  been  here  engaged  in 
the  arduous  duties  of  our  trust  ? — is  it  a  surprise  that  the  gentlemen 
of  thirty-two  counties  have  attended  here  to  act  as  managers  in  the 
common  cause  ? — is  it   a  surprise  that  those  gentlemen  have  come 


74  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

hither  to  decide  on  a  question  so  vital  to  their  dearest  interests  ? — is 
it  not  a  cheering  circumstance,  to  see  gentlemen  coming  forward  to 
aid  the  committee  with  their  counsels  ?  I  could  have  wished  that 
those  other  gentlemen,  whom  I  see  here  to-day,  had  regularly 
attended,  and  had  participated  in  the  arduous  labours  of  the  com- 
mittee  I  have  the  greatest  respect  for  the  gentlemen 

of  the  metropolis ;  but  if  it  should  be  contended  that  they  alone  are 
always  to  conduct  the  affairs  of  the  Catholics,  to  the  exclusion  of 
country  managers,  I  must  say  what  I  before  mentioned  in  the  com- 
mittee, that  they  resemble  the  fable  of  the  frog  and  ox.  So,  then, 
we  are  to  undertake  the  management  of  Catholic  affairs,  without  the 
aid  of  the  country :  to  say  that  we  would  assume  such  a  privilege, 
would  be  an  aspersion  on  our  characters.  But  is  it  not  a  monstrous 
proposition,  that  we  should  send  back  into  the  country,  with  disgrace, 
those  members  whom  we  have  invited  to  come  among  us — men  of 
rank,  honour,  and  talent — and  that,  too,  without  assigning  any  suffi- 
cient reason  ?  You  have  invited  them  to  attend — but  when  they  are 
arrived,  are  you  to  tell  the  people  of  Ireland,  '  we  send  you  back  the 
fools,  returning  them  like  damaged  wares?'  " 

Mr.  O'Connell — as  already  in  his  career,  had  been  very  fre- 
quently his  office — had  to  compose  the  angry  passions,  which 
were  now  running  high,  and,  with  every  fresh  speaker,  were 
becoming  more  and  more  excited. 

*<  Mr.  O'Connell  began  by  expressing  an  anxious  hope  that  the 
discussion  of  this  day  would  be  conducted  with  good  temper,  and  ter- 
minate in  harmony.  His  object  was  to  stifle  every  sentiment 
amongst  the  Catholic  body,  that  would  militate  against  that  cordial 
spirit  of  co-operation,  which  had  hitherto  animated  the  members 
of  the  committee.  Hitherto,  at  their  meetings,  a  difference  of 
opinion  did  sometimes,  as  it  was  quite  natural,  prevail ;  but 
there  was  no  intention  of  division — and,  from  this  heartfelt 
unanimity,  he  had  with  delight  beheld  the  dawning  certainty  of 
speedy  and  complete  emancipation.  The  Catholic  cause  was  now  too 
great  and  irresistible  to  be  destroyed,  even  by  the  misconduct  of  its 
own  advocates.  It  had,  indeed,  been  almost  crushed  in  its  infancy, 
by  distrust  and  dissension.  Dissension  had  impeded  it  in  every  step 
of  its  progress,  and  was  still  the  drag-chain  that  encumbered  and 
retarded  its  movements.  By  division,  the  Catholics  would  be  not  only 
weakened,    but   degraded :  if  they    quarrelled   amongst   themselves. 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  75 

they  would  disgust  their  friends  and  delight  their  enemies.     Could 
anything  be  imagined   more   agreeable  to   the  Wellesleys  and  the 
Percevals,  than  to  find  the  Catholics  of  Ireland  involved  in  a  wrangle 
amongst  themselves — than  to  see  them   engaged  in  attacking  and 
vilifying  one  another,  when  every  faculty  of  their  minds  ought  to  be 
directed  to  concert  one  combined  effort  of  all  the  Irish  people  to  put 
down  their  enemies,  and  to  procure,  in  a  constitutional  course,  their 
Emancipation.     He  did,  therefore,   conjure  the  gentlemen  Avho  had 
brought  forward  the  present  question   to  revert  to  that  subject,  for 
which  the  committee  had  been  originally  framed,  namely,  the  petition ; 
and  to  suffer  that  to  proceed,  without  embarking  in  discussions  that 
could  not  be  productive    of   advantage.     He   expected   from   those 
gentlemen,  that  they  would,  when  they  contemplated  the  triumph  to 
our  enemies,  and  the  mischief  to  the  Catholics,  which  must  ensue 
from  dissension,  abandon  that  species  of  crimination  and  attack,  which 
had  been  that  day,  for  the  first  time,  introduced  into  the  committee. 
The  charges  that  were  made,  even  supposing  them  founded,  could  be 
obviated,  if  those  gentlemen  would,  themselves,  take  the  trouble  of 
attending  in  future.     But  he  must  say,  that  the  gentlemen  who  did 
attack  the  committee,  were  altogether  mistaken.     The  fact  was,  that 
the  committee  stands  high  in  the  public  opinion — and  that  this  esti- 
mation was  founded  on  important  services  and  pure  exertions — upon 
a  painful  sacrifice  of  the  time  and  labour  of  the  individuals — and 
upon  the  more  painful  exposure  which  they  made  of  themselves,  to 
every  shaft  of  calumny  and  ridicule,  from  the  mean,  mercenary,  and 
malignant  hirelings  of  the  enemies  of  the  Catholics.     With  respect  to 
that  part  of  the  Irish  Catholic  bar,  which  took  a  part  in  the  labours 
of  the  committee,  he  would  not  say  a  word  in  its  vindication  :  for  his 
own  part,  he  should  be  most  grateful  if  the  bar  were  altogether  to  be 
excluded  from   Catholic  politics — and  it  would  be  easy  to  exclude 
them.     If  the  noble  lord  could  spare  time  from  his  other  avocations, 
to  attend  the  affairs  of  the  Catholics,  he,  for  one,  would  rejoice  at 
their  being  placed  in  such   excellent  hands ;  and  would  then   think 
himself  justified  in  devoting  himself,  exclusively,  to  his  professional 
pursuits.     All  he  wished  to  see  was,  that  gentlemen  would  come  for- 
ward, and  take  upon  themselves  the  trouble  of  advancing  the  Catholic 
concerns  ;  but  it  really  was  rather  severe  that  gentlemen,  who  avowed 
that  they  themselves  had  not  leisure  to  attend  to  the  business  of  the 
Catholics,  should  charge   those  who,  with  a  disinterested   zeal,  had 
made,  and  were  ready  to  make  a  sacrifice  of  their  time  and  exertions, 
with  being  animated  with  the  pitiful  ambition  of  leadership.     No— 


76  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

that  was  a  contemptible  object ;  and  he  had  no  difficulty  in  calling  on 
the  all-seeing  Deity  to  attest  the  truth  of  his  assertion,  that  the  con- 
scientious discharge  of  duty  to  an  afflicted  country,  was  his  leading 
motive  to  come  forward  ;  and  that  neither  he  nor  his  children  should 
ever  be  reproached,  with  truth,  for  having  committed  the  cause  of 
the  Catholics  into  any  advantage  of  a  personal  nature  to  himself. 
Neither  did  the  committee  deserve  any  part  of  the  reproaches  cast 
upon  them ;  on  the  contrary,  they  had  done  their  duty  well.  The 
cause  of  the  Catholic  soldiery  attracted  their  attention — they  exposed 
to  view  the  gross  violations  of  the  law,  which  were  daily  committed 
with  respect  to  Catholic  soldiers — the  really  patriotic  prints  of  the 
metropolis  joined  in  the  cause^ — and  the  result  has  been,  that  even 
the  Wellesley  administration  in  this  country  have  condescended  so 
far  as  to  recognise  the  law  of  the  land  in  their  military  orders  ;  and 
now  the  Catholic  soldiers  in  Ireland  are  allowed  to  serve  their  king, 
without  being  called  on  for  any  violation  of  their  consciences.  No 
petty  tyrant,  dressed  in  a  little  brief  authority,  could  now  indulge  his 
vile  bigotry,  by  compelling  the  defenders  of  their  king  and  country  to 
abandon  what  they  conceived  to  be  their  duty  to  their  God.  Was 
this  no  service  ?  Did  the  committee  deserve  no  thanks  for  this  ? — or 
rather,  was  it  not  an  earnest  of  what  the  committee  had  still  to  do, 
and  would  do,  in  redressing  other  oppressions,  if  their  cause  was  not 
impeded  by  division  and  dissension  ?  At  all  events,  we  had  a  right 
to  call  upon  those  who  impeached  the  committee,  to  state  in  what 
respect  they  had  done  even  so  much  for  the  Catholic  cause.  Let 
them  state  their  services,  and  he  would  return  them  thanks,  and  not 
impeachment.  But,  sir,  the  committee  have  not  confined  their  exer- 
tions to  this  single  subject.  We  have  framed,  in  very  firm  and  con- 
stitutional language,  the  petition  which  has  been  already  signed  by 
thousands  :  we  have  already  procured  illustrious  personages  in  both 
houses  of  parliament,  to  take  charge  of  it ;  and  it  is  now  actucilly 
ready  for  transmission  to  England.  There  was  another  subject  which 
engrossed  much  of  our  attention:  it  was  the  placing  before  the 
empire  and  the  world,  the  present  oppressed  and  degraded  state  of 
the  Catholics  of  Ireland,  in  all  its  emaciating  details.  It  appeared  to 
him  that  the  principal  cause  which  had  hitherto  pi'evented  the 
emancipation  of  the  Catholics,  was  the  strange  ignorance  of  our  situa- 
tion, under  which  our  warmest  friends  laboured.  Even  our  best  and 
brightest  advocate,  that  ornament  to  Ireland,  Henry  Grattan  himself, 
laboured  under  this  mistake :  Mr.  Ponsonby,  too,  who  has  exerted 
himself  so  strenuously  in  the  Catholic  cause,   a])pears  to  be   equally 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  77 

ignorant.  It  is  to  me,  therefore,  not  at  all  surprising,  that  the  Edin- 
burgh reviewers  should  have  fallen  into  the  same  error,  so  that  they 
stated  more  than  once,  in  their  late  most  admirable  essay  on  the  sub- 
ject, that  the  Catholics  were  excluded  from  only  about  forty  offices, 
besides  the  houses  of  parliament.  Notwithstanding  this,  to  them 
almost  inevitable  error,  theirs  was  a  most  admirable  discussion — it 
was  a  specimen  of  that  inestimable  logic,  that  clear  arrangement  of 
the  subject,  and  that  conclusive  display  of  proofs  with  which  that 
work  abounded ;  but  what  would  it  have  been  if  they  were  informed 
of  our  real  situation  ;  my  praise  of  those  reviewers  must  be  allowed 
to  be  unbiassed.  I  differ  from  them  on  the  subject  of  the  veto,  and 
would  undertake  to  convince  any  of  them  that  I  am  right.  I  also 
easily  see  myself  amongst  those  whom  they  style  '  bombastic  counsel- 
lors ;'  and  I  smile  to  see  how  happily  they  have  described  that 
fustian  and  rant,  which  I  am  in  the  habit,  as  at  present,  of  obtruding 
upon  your  meetings.  But,  notwithstanding  this  attack,  which  I 
admit  to  be  personal,  I  do  most  sincerely  and  cordially  thank  them 
for  their  exertions.  It  is  not  in  the  nature  of  popular  feeling  to  con- 
tinue long  its  gratitude ;  but  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying,  that  the 
Catholics  of  Ireland  deserve  to  be  slaves,  if  they  ever  forget  what 
they  owe  to  the  writers  of  that  article.  Let  me,  however,  repeat  my 
regret,  that  its  effect  should  have  been  weakened  by  the  erroneous 
view  which  those  writers  took  of  our  situation.  It  is  strange  enough, 
that  when  they  contributed  so  considerably  to  the  repeal  of  the  slave 
trade,  they  were  found  to  be  perfectly  conversant  with  the  savage 
tribes  of  Raarta  and  Bambana ;  and  that  they  were  able  to  give  dis- 
sertations on  the  police  of  the  bai'bai'ic  cities  of  Sego  and  Timbuctoo, 
and  yet  are   so  deplorably  ignorant  of  the    condition    of  the  white 

slaves  of  Ireland.  We  have  another  excellent  advocate  in  England 

an  advocate  whom  we  could  bribe  only  one  way,  with  the  justice  of 
our  cause — I  mean  William  Cobbett.  It  is  truly  important  to  us 
that  his  exertions  should  not  be  paralyzed  by  ignorance  of  our  wants. 
The  moment  we  can  show  him  the  extent  of  our  oppressions,  we  fur- 
nish him  with  materials  to  ensure  our  triumph — and  it  must  be 
admitted  that  we  could  not  have  a  more  useful  advocate.  When  he 
is  right,  he  is  irresistible — there  is  a  strength  and  clearness  in  the 
way  he  puts  every  topic ;  be  is  at  once  so  convincing,  and  yet  so 
familiar,  that  the  dullest  can  understand,  and  even  the  bigot  must  be 
convinced.  But  what  has  deservedly  raised  him  high  in  public  esti- 
mation, is  the  manly  candour  with  which  he  avows  and  retracts  any 
opinion  that  he  discovers  to  be  erroneous,  I  can  hardly  conceive  a 
greater  proof  of  sound  understanding  and  perfect  honesty  than  such 


78  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

conduct ;  but  what  has  been  his  fate  ?  Why,  he  has  advocated 
your  cause,  and  is  suffering  under  an  atrocious  sentence — indeed, 
in  the  history  of  modern  times,  a  sentence  so  disproportionate 
with  the  offence,  as  to  excite  horror  and  disgust  in  the  mind 
of  every  man  who  heard  it — a  sentence  which  actually  has  the  effect 
of  converting  the  object  of  it  from  being  the  victim  of  just  law,  into 
the  martyr  of  some  unpopular,  and,  therefore,  hated  cause.  What  a 
besotted,  benumbed  people  these  English  are  !  They  heard  the  sen- 
tence pronounced :  two  long  weary  years'  imprisonment  for  a  libel  on 
the  German  legion!  They  saw  the  victim  conveyed  to  his  dungeon; 
the  fountain  of  mercy  was  there,  yet  there  was  no  address,  no  petition 
to  the  throne  for  its  interference — neither  has  this  subject  yet  been 
brought  before  either  house  of  Parliament.  Upon  this  subject  I 
confess  I  have  been  led  away  by  my  feelings ;  but  as  I  have  wan- 
dered, allow  me  to  indidge  in  relating  to  you  the  fate  of  another 
public  character.  A  certain  land-calf,  of  the  name  of  Sparke,  pro- 
nounced and  published,  some  two  years  ago,  a  dissertation  in  bad 
Latin,  in  which  he  strenuously  advised  that  Catholics  should  be 
turned  out  of  every  civil  situation  ;  and  that  they  should  be  expelled 
from  the  army  and  navy  !  Upon  what  grounds  think  you  ?  Why, 
as  the  enemies  of  everything  human  and  divine !  Here  was  a  libel — 
a  libel  most  admirably  calculated  to  serve  the  interests  of  Bonaparte, 
by  depriving  us,  at  a  single  blow,  of  at  least  three-fourths  of  our 
army  and  navy.  You  imagine,  of  course,  that  he  was  punished — 
that  the  Attorney-General  prosecuted  him,  and  called  for  a  vindictive 
sentence  in  the  name  of  the  army  and  navy,  and  that  he  conjured  up 
the  shades  of  the  Catholics  who  bled  at  Aboukir  and  Trafalgar — who 
bravely  fought  and  greatly  died  at  Vimiera  and  Talavera,  to  scream 
for  vengeance.  You  suppose  that  this  worthy  divine  was  sentenced 
to  at  least  one  fortnight's  imprisonment.  Oh,  no,  you  are  mistaken — 
he  was  only  made  a  bishop,  and  he  will  soon  have  to  give  his  enlight- 
ened vote  on  our  petition  to  the  lords.  Mr.  O'Connell  entreated 
pardon  for  thus  wandering  from  the  subject — his  object  was  to  show 
the  labours  and  services  of  the  committee ;  and  he  had  pointed  out 
the  state  of  ignorance  in  which  our  advocates  were,  with  respect  to 
Catholic  privations.  It  was  unnecessary  to  enlarge  on  the  utility  of 
giving  accurate  information  on  the  subject.  The  committee  felt  that 
they  had  this  duty  to  discharge,  and  they  have,  with  no  small  labour, 
completed  it.  He  held  in  his  hand  the  volume  of  near  two  hundred 
pages,  which  they  had  compiled  on  the  subject ;  and  if  the  meeting 
would  suffer  him,  he  would  undertake  to  demonstrate  that  the  com- 
mittee had  exerted  itself  with  much  attention  and  labour.     If  he  was 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  79 

suffered,  lie  would  shortly  state  an  abstract,  taken  from  their  report, 
of  the  offices  of  trust,  honour,  and  emolument,  from  which  the 
Catholics  are  excluded,  and  which  even  our  friends  estimate  so  low 
as  about  forty,  but  which,  in  truth,  amount,  when  the  influence,  as 
well  as  the  positive  enactment  of  the  penal  code,  is  considered,  to 
upwards  of  thirty  thousand.     If  he  did  not  weary  the  meeting,  he 

would  now  go  into  detail (A  general  cry  of  '  go  on,  go  on.')     Mr. 

O'Connell,  in  continuation,  said,  being  encouraged,  he  would  proceed 
with  the  abstract.  The  first  thing  that  offered  itself  was  the  parlia- 
ment. From  seats  in  both  houses ,  the  Catholics  were  excluded, 
amounting  to  900 :  next  came  the  offices  in  corporations.  We  are, 
in  Dublin,  excluded  from  the 

Offices  of  Lord  Mayor  and  Aldermen,    .....  24 

Sheriffs  and  Sub-Sheriffs, 3 

Sheriff 's  Peers, 38 

Common  Council,           ........  96 

Becorder,        ..........  1 

Treasurer,      .....,.,..! 

Town  Clerks, 2 

Masters  and  Wardens  of  Guilds, 73 

Total, 238 

There  are,  I  think,  86  other  corporate  cities  and  towns  in  Ireland, 
which,  at  the  low  average  rate  of  32  officers  in  each,  from  which 
Catholics  are  by  law  excluded,  amount  to  2752  ;  giving  a  total,  under 
positive  exclusion  of  3083.  But  if  a  more  accurate  view  of  the  other 
offices  in  the  gift  of  the  corporation,  or  confided  to  them,  be  taken, 
it  will  be  found  that  Catholics  are,  by  the  spirit  and  operation  of  the 
law,  if  not  by  the  letter  of  it,  excluded  from  those  latter  offices — as, 
for  example,  in  Dublin — 

President   of   the   Court   of  Conscience,  his   Secretary  and 

Clerk,  (worth  two  thousand  pounds  per  annum,)     .         .       2 
Lord  Mayor's  Secretary  .......       1 

Police  Justices,       .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .12 

Their  Secretaries  and  Clerks,  .         .         .         .         .         .12 

City  Officers,  as  Constables,  Sword-bearer,  &c. ,  (see  Red  Book),     27 
Cranes,  ..........      4 

Pipe-water  Board,  ........     22 

Public  Money  Yards,  &c.,       .......      3 

Ballast  Office, 16 

Paving  Boarcl  and  Offices,       .......     13 

Grand   Jury,    with  very  few   exceptions,   and  other  public 

boards,  offices,  and  clerks,        ......     50 

Amounting  to        .         .         .  162 

Add  to  those  similar  offices  in  the  other  86  corporations  of 

Ireland,  averaged  at  only  32  to  each,  amounting  to  .        2752 

Total, 2914 


80  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

Thirdly — There  are  in  the  profession  and  administration  of  the 
law-officers,  from  which  we  are  directly  excluded  : — 

Lord  Chancellor,     .........       1 

Master  of  the  Rolls, 1 

Law  Judges,  .........     12 

Serjeants,       ..........       9 

King's  Counsel,  (now)    ........     28 

Masters  in  Chancery,     ........       4 

Attorney  and  Solicitor-General,     ......       2 

Counsel  to  the  Commons,       .......       2 

Chairman  of  Kilmainham,     .......       1 

Sheriifs  of  Countless       .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .32 

Sub- Sheriffs, 32 

Advocates  in  the  Spiritual  Court, 20 

Proctors  in  Dublin,         ........       9 

Proctors  in  the  country,  .......     40 

Notary  Public,        .........     56 

Law  Officers  in  the  Spiritual  Courts — the  jurisdiction  of  these 

Courts  extend  over  temporal  matters,      ....  109 

Total,  ....  353 

Add  to  those  a  number  of  Officers  under  the  patronage  prin- 
cipally of  the  foregoing ;  which,  although  the  profession 
of  the  law  is  not  unequivocally  Uberal,  yet  Catholics  are 
almost  uniformly  excluded  from  such  as  Assistant. Bar- 
risters of  Counties,  Assistant  Counsel  Coroners,  Law 
Clerks  in  tlie  Law  and  Equity  Offices  in  Counties,  (see 
Red  Book, )  amounting,  at  least,  to  ....  700 

Total, 1058 


The  next  class  I  shall  mention  is  that  of  the  officers  in  the  army  and 
navy.  It  is  notoi'ious  that  the  Catholics  contribute  very  largely  in 
money  and  men,  to  those  services.  The  number  of  officers  may  be 
thus  estimated.     In  the  army,  the  regiments  are  thus : 


Life  Guards, 2 

Horse  Guards,         .........       1 

Dragoon  Guards, 7 

Dragoons,        .         .         .         ,         .         .         .         .     -   .         .24 

Foot  Guards, 3 

Foot, 101 

Artillery, 3 

Irish  Militia,  from  severaUof  the  commissions  in  which  Catho- 
lics are  absolutely  excluded,     ......     28 

Total, -   169 

Several  of  the  regiments  have  two,  three,  or  more  batallions,  so  that 
the  entire  may  be  estimated  at  200  battalions,  and  must  contain  7500 
commissioned  officers,  from  which  deduct  100  for  Catholic  officers  in 
the  Irish  militia,  it  will  leave  7400.     And  it  is  quite  manifest  that 


I 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  81 

the  proportion  of  100  Catholic  officers  in  the  Irish  militia,  is  a  great 
exaggeration.  Add  the  paymasters,  commissariat  department,  the 
staff,  storekeepers,  contractors,  &c.,  under  the  same  patronage, 
amounting,  at  least,  to  1600;  amounting,  in  the  entire,  to  9000.  In 
the  navy,  the  officers  may  be  thus  estimated : — There  are  in  commis- 
sion, about  900  ships.  At  a  very  moderate  average  there  are  ten 
officers  to  a  ship,  being  9000  ;  admirals,  &c.,  about  200 ;  add  the 
dock-yard  establishments,  the  companies  of  marines,  the  pursers,  and 
the  other  officers  dependent  on  the  naval  departments,  amounting  to 
3800;  amounting  in  the  entire,  to  13,000.  There  are  other  officers 
of  trust,  honour,  and  emolument,  from  which  the  Catholics  are 
excluded : — 

Lord  Lieutenant,    .........  1 

Lords  of  the  Treasury,  ........  8 

Governors  of  Counties,  (now)         .         .         .         .         .         .38 

Privy  Councillors,  including  Duigenau,  .         .         .         .90 

Fellows  of  Trinity  College, 28 

Scholars  of  ditto, 60 

Postmasters-General,      ........  2 

Teller  of  the  Exchequer, 1 

Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer, I 

Keeper  of  the  Privy  Seal,       .......  1 

Vice  Treasurer,      .........  1 

Auditor-General,    .........  1 

Custodes  Rotulorum,                .......  16 

Secretary  of  State, X 

Secretary  to  the  Lord  Lieutenant, 2 

Total, 231 

I  am  sure  I  can  be  reproached  only  with  having  too  far  diminished 
the  dependent  offices  from  which  the  Catholics  are  excluded  under 
this  head,  when  I  state  them  only  at  2060.  Catholics  are  excluded 
from  the  following  offices  :— 

Indirectly. 

.  1829 
.  700 
.  1600 
.  3000 
.  2000 

Thus  giving  a  total  of  offices  from  which  Catholics  are  excluded, 
by  positive  enactment,  of    .......  21,261 

And  of  offices  from  which  they  are  almost,  with  equal  certainty 

excluded,  by  the  spirit  and  operation  of  the  law,  amounting  to  9,229 

Amounting  in  the  entire,  to         .         .         .  30,490 

Let  it  be  recollected,  that  in  giving  this  statement,  we  abstain  altogether  from 
the  situations  wliich  belong,  of  right,  to  the  Established  Church.  We  should  be 
sorry  to  see  any  similar  law  created  for  our  clergy,  and  we  most  assuredly  do 
not  seek  to  disturb  those  that  exist." 


1.  Parliament, 

Directly 

.     900 

2.  Corporations, 

3.  Law,            .... 

.  3152 
.     338 

4.  Army,         .... 

5.  Navy,          .... 

6.  Other  offices  enumerated,  . 

.  7400 
.  9200 
.     231 

82  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

"  There  is  another  important  branch  in  the  political  economy  of 
this  country,  from  which  the  Catholics  are  almost  altogether  excluded  ; 
it  relates  to  the  collection  and  distribution  of  the  public  money. 
There  are  annually  about  six  millions  raised  on  the  Irish  people — of 
these,  it  is  said,  that  only  four  millions,  or  13s.  4d.  in  the  pound, 
reach  the  treasury.  There  are,  besides,  four  millions  annually,  bor- 
rowed in  England,  for  Ireland,  and  expended  in  this  country ;  so  that 
there  seems,  taken  together,  a  sum,  making  altogether,  ten  millions, 
is  collected  and  managed,  almost  exclusively  by  Protestants  ;  there 
not  being,  I  dare  say,  at  the  utmost,  twenty  Catholics  employed  in 
such  collection  or  management.  I  am  sure  I  should  grossly  exagge- 
rate it,  were  I  to  say  there  were  twenty  ;  amongst  other  reasons, 
because  I  have  already  shown  that  the  far  greater  number  of  the 
offices  attached  to  that  collection  and  management,  are  by  the  law 
shut  against  the  Catholics ;  so  that  we  have  ten  millions  yearly,  the 
principal  of  no  less  than  six  millions  of  which  are  raised  from  the 
inhabitants  of  this  land,  and  the  interest  of  the  entire  of  which  is 
charged  upon  them  and  their  descendants,  in  perpetuity.  We  have 
these  ten  millions  oppressive  to  all,  and  emolumentary  only  to  a  few 
of  the  Protestants.  Let  it  also  be  recollected,  that  the  four  millions 
which  are  paid  into  the  Irish  treasury,  have  a  second  operation,  for 
of  course  they  are  paid  out  again  in  discharge  of  the  expenditure  of 
the  state ;  but  the  management  of  such  payment  is  also  in  the  hands 
of  the  members  of  the  Established  Church  ;  so  that,  in  fact,  we  are 
thus  excluded  from  the  management,  and  all  the  advantages  that 
result  from  the  management  of  fourteen  millions  of  money  annually, 
taking  into  consideration  the  second  ojieration  of  the  four  millions 
raised  in  Ireland.  The  committee  have  entered  into  various  details 
to  illustrate  and  prove  their  statements  ;  they  do  not  omit  to  treat 
often  of  the  insult  that  the  parade  of  Orange  anniversaries,  and  the 
commemoration  of  ancient  feuds,  excite  and  perpetuate  ;  but  above 
all,  they  have  investigated  the  deplorable  situation  of  the  inferior 
orders  of  Catholics  in  the  towns,  particularly  in  the  north,  on  those 
days  devoted  to  the  celebration  of  Orange  festivals  ;  when  the  lower 
order  of  those  systematic  oppressors  meet  together  for  the  purpose, 
according  to  the  phrase  used  by  some  of  themselves,  at  a  late  trial  at 
Omagh,  '  of  making  Orangemen.^  The  committee  has  remarked,  too, 
on  the  degrading  situation  in  which  the  Irish  Catholic  officers,  who 
go  to  England  with  their  regiments,  are  placed.  There,  they  must 
quit  the  service,  or  violate  their  consciences,  whilst  they  see  German 
soldiers  enjoy  complete  toleration  in  the  Catholic  religion;  as  if  the 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,"  ESQ.,    M.P.  83 

conscience  of  a  German  was  declared  by  law  to  be  worthy  of  respect, 
that  of  the  Irish,  of  none  ;  why  else  do  the  pious  Perceval,  and  holy 
"Wilberforce,  consent  to  allow  popery  in  the  German  legion,  and  per- 
secute it  amongst  the  loyal  Irish  ?  It  is  our  anxious  wish  that  some 
of  the  class  of  hirelings  who  do  the  dirty  work  of  the  Wellesleys  and 
the  Percevals,  shall  have  the  audacity  to  contradict  the  facts  which 
our  statement  contains.  We  challenge  them  to  that  contradiction ; 
all  wc  entreat  is,  that  they  will  come  to  particulars ;  but  if  they  do 
not — if  they  protect  themselves  by  general  denials,  we  are  ready  with 
the  proofs  of  each  and  every  assertion.  I  entreat  the  indulgence  of 
the  meeting  for  this  lengthened  trespass  on  their  patience.  I  hope  I 
have  shown  that  the  committee  has  not  neglected  its  duty ;  it  has 
assisted  to  relieve  the  soldiery  from  the  oppressions  under  which  they 
laboured — it  has  prepared  the  petition,  and  made  every  arrangf^ment 
for  its  presentation — and  it  has  ready  for  publication,  a  detailed  state- 
ment of  the  penalties  and  persecutions  under  which  the  Catholics 
suiFer ;  yet,  whilst  we  do  thus  suffer — whilst  the  multiplicity  and 
weight  of  our  chains  may  affright  even  our  enemies,  we,  wretched 
slaves  that  we  are,  instead  of  combining  heart  and  hand  to  procure 
redress  and  relief,  are  about  to  engage  in  a  miserable  warfare  among 
ourselves.  The  old  curse  of  the  Catholics  is,  I  fear,  about  to  be 
renewed ;  division,  that  made  us  what  we  are,  and  keeps  us  so,  is 
again  to  rear  its  standard  amongst  us ;  but  it  was  thus  always  with 
the  Irish  Catholics.  I  recollect,  that  in  reading  the  life  of  the  great 
Duke  of  Ormond,  as  he  is  called,  I  was  foi'cibly  struck  with  a  des- 
patch of  his,  transmitted  about  the  year  1661,  when  he  was  Lord 
Lieutenant  of  Ireland.  It  was  written  to  vindicate  himself  from  a 
charge  of  having  favoured  the  papists,  and  having  given  them  per- 
mission to  hold  a  public  meeting  in  Dublin,  His  answer  is  remark-^ 
able.  He  rejects  with  disdain  the  foul  calumny  of  being  a  favourer 
of  papists  ;  though  he  admits  he  gave  them  leave  to  meet :  '  because,' 
said  he,  '  I  know  by  experience,  that  the  Irish  papists  never  meet, 
without  dividing  and  degrading  themselves.'  I  quote  the  words  of 
the  official  despatch  ;  I  can  lay  my  finger  on  the  very  spot,  in 
*  Carte's  Life  of  Ormond.' 

"  One  hundred  and  fifty  years  have  since  elapsed,  and  we  are  still  in 
thraldom,  because  no  experience  can,  I  fear,  cure  us  of  this  wretched 
disposition  to  divide.  He  entreated  of  the  respectable  gentlemen 
who  that  day  attended  the  committee,  to  consider  that  their  mistakes, 
if  they  had  made  any,  ought  not  to  be  visited  with  so  grievous  a 
calamity,  as  that  of  O'eating  dissension  amongbt  them.     But  in  point 


84  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

of  fact,  of  what  was  the  committee  acciised  ?  Why,  that  they,  having 
been  expressly  entrusted  with  the  management  of  Catholic  affairs, 
had  thought  it  prudent  and  wise  to  consult,  not  the  citizens  of  Dublin 
alone,  but  the  Catholic  inhabitants  of  every  county  in  Ireland.  Had 
not  the  counties  of  Tipperary,  and  Kerry,  and  Clare,  and  Carlow, 
and  Kilkenny,  as  good  a  right  to  be  consulted  with,  and  heard,  as  the 
city  of  Dublin  ;  and  he  appealed  to  the  good  sense  of  every  man 
present,  whether  it  must  not  have  the  worst  effect  on  the  Catholic 
mind,  if  any  gentlemen  shall  continue  to  insist,  as  they  did  that  day, 
that  an  aggregate  meeting  in  Dublin  was  all-powerful,  that  it  was 
"  the  people,"  and  that  the  Catholics  of  the  different  counties  had  no 
right  to  contribute  to  the  fouiidation  of  the  general  committee.  The 
objection  in  point  of  form  to  enci'easing  the  committee,  would  have 
weight  but  for  the  state  of  the  law.  The  managers  of  the  petition 
appointed  by  the  counties  were  not  delegates,  and  could  not  act  in  a 
representative  capacity  ;  but  this  was  only  because  the  law  prevented 
the  Catholics  from  choosing  delegates,  and  holding  a  representative 
assembly.  It  should,  however,  be  recollected,  that  a  precisely  similar 
objection  lay  against  the  committee  appointed  by  the  aggregate 
meeting,  for  neither  were  they  delegates  or  representatives.  If  they 
insisted  on  the  country,  they  would  only  expose  themselves  to  the 
hazard  of  an  indictment,  with  the  certainty  of  being  convicted. 
This  was  the  distinct  answer  to  the  maxim,  the  trite  and  quaint 
maxim  which  no  person  disputed,  that  a  deputy  could  not  constitute 
a  deputy.  The  fact  was,  that  there  were  not,  and  could  not  be  any 
deputies  in  the  committee.  In  the  present  state  of  the  law,  we  could 
only  regret  that  delegation  was  forbidden — but  we  should  not  be 
driven,  even  by  this  impeachment,  to  violate  the  law,  and  expose  the 
Catholic  committee  to  a  prosecution.  It  assuredly  could  not  be  the 
ntention  of  the  gentlemen  to  drive  the  committee  into  that  predica- 
ment. It  was  impossible  not  to  be  sensible  that  he  had  already  con- 
sumed too  much  of  the  time  of  the  meeting;  he  should  therefore  rapidly 
conclude  by  moving  the  order  of  the  day,  namely — '  That  the  Catholic 
petition  be  forthwith  presented  to  parliament.'  He  was  anxious  to  place 
that  out  of  the  way  of  dissension.  Indeed  the  cry  of  no  petition, 
like  a  somewhat  similar  cry  in  another  quarter,  had,  it  was  supposed 
by  the  country,  been  the  watchword  of  party  in  Dublin.  It  was 
strongly  suspected  by  many  well-meaning  persons,  that  such  cry  was 
used  for  the  sole  purpose  of  serving  as  a  rallying  word ;  and  this 
suspicion  unfortunately  justified  in  some  measure  by  the  change  that 
-had  taken  in  the  arguments  used  to  oppose  the  petition.     Formerly, 


DANIEL    o'cONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.  P.  85 

gentlemen  talked  for  hours  in  praise  of  '  dignified  silence,'  and  of 
'frowning  upon  their  enemies,'  and  of  '  muttering  curses  deep  not 
loud.'  Now,  indeed,  their  faces  were  decked  in  smiles ;  they  were 
smoothing  their  whiskers,  and  putting  them  on  the  peace  establish- 
ment ;  they  talked  of  delicacy,  and  with  courtly  air,  entreated  that 
we  would  not  embarrass  our  friends  of  the  new  administration. 
Sir,  I  know  but  of  one  embarrassment  in  this  nation — and  that  arises 
from  the  state  of  weakness  and  distraction  the  empire  suffers  from  the 
political  injustice  inflicted  on  the  Catholics.  I  know  but  of  one 
embarrassment  to  the  Catholics,  and  that  arises  from  the  state  of 
inferiority  and  degradation  in  which  the  criminal  neglect  of  our  just 
right  leaves  us.  I  know  too,  but  of  one  course  to  procure  emancipa- 
tion. It  is  the  open,  manly,  and  constitutional  right  of  petition 
If  you  petition  session  alter  session,  you  take  away  all  pretext  for 
intrigue  and  cabal  amongst  yourselves  ;  all  rational  hope  of  managing 
a  party  amongst  us  from  your  enemies,  and  also  from  your  false- 
hearted friends  ;  and  for  my  part,  my  humble  opinion  is  decided, 
that  you  should  continue  to  repeat  your  demands  for  liberty,  until 
every  grievance  shall  be  extinguished,  and  every  trace  of  religious 
oppression  annihilated.  It  was,  however,  right  to  observe  that  if  the 
country  differed  with  him  on  this  subject,  they  ought  in  justice  to  be 
heard.  It  was  imperative  on  the  committee  to  lay  the  petition  before 
parliament ;  but  no  discussion  could  take  place  upon  it  till  after  the 
Easter  recess ;  in  fact,  until  the  middle  of  next  May.  In  the 
interim,  the  managers  for  each  county  would  be  able  to  ascertain 
the  sentiments  of  their  respective  neighbourhoods ;  and  should  it 
appear  to  be  the  will  of  the  majority  of  the  Catholics,  that  the  dis- 
cussion of  our  petition  should  be  deferred  for  another  year,  why  the 
example  set  by  the  English  Catholics  last  session  may  be  adopted,  and 
the  petition  allowed  to  lie  on  the  table  for  the  present.  He  must  say 
that  he  would  regret  any  such  determination,  as  our  claims,  if 
understood,  which  they  could  be  but  by  discussion  in  parliament,  are 
really  invincible.  But  he  never  would  set  up  his  own  opinion 
against  that  of  the  majority,  or  even  against  that  of  any  considerable 
portion  of  the  Catholic  body. 

"  He  then  concluded  by  reminding  gentlemen,  that  every  authority, 
human  and  divine,  spoke  trumpet-tongued  of  the  evils  of  dissension  ; 
and  he  conjured  the  meeting,  as  they  wished  to  be  true  to  their 
country,  and  to  their  God,  not  to  divide,  and  distract  fellow-labourers 
and  fellow-slaves." 


86  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

Mr.  O'Connell  finally  prevailed,  though  not  without  a  division, 
on  which  however,  there  was  a  considerable  majority  against 
Mr.  Clinch's  amendment. 

According  to  a  re:?olution  of  a  previous  meeting  (on  the  29th 
December,  in  the  preceding  year,  1810),  the  petition  was  to  be 
entrusted  to  Mr.  Grattan,  for  presentation  in  the  Commons. 

A  short  speech  of  Mr.  O'Connell's  at  the  meeting  just 
referred  to — viz.,  that  of  December,  1810,  may  (without  any 
more  extended  notice  of  the  meeting  itself)  be  here  inserted,  as 
one  of  the  many  links  of  the  chain  of  evidence  we  trust  this 
collection  of  his  public  acts  will  be  found  to  afford,  in  proof  of 
how  undeviatingly  he  has  always,  while  working  for  Ireland, 
looked  to,  and  endeavoured  to  serve,  the  best  interest  of  the 
empire  at  large. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  said,  that  what  had  fallen  from  the  learned  gen- 
tleman (Nicholas  Purcell  O'Grorman,  Esq.)  who  had  preceded  him,  re- 
quired some  observation.  He  (Mr.  O'Gorman)  had  supposed  that  the 
French  party,  mentioned  by  Mr,  Grattan,  was,  by  our  enemies,  alleged 
to  exist  among  the  Catholics  of  Ireland.  This  was  an  assertion 
which  he,  Mr.  O'Connell,  said  he  must  controvert.  There  did  not 
exist,  even  among  the  mean  and  miserable  herd  of  the  adversaries  of 
the  Catholics,  any  man  so  shameless  as  to  assert  that  a  French  party 
could  be  found  amongst  us.  In  truth,  nothing  could  be  more 
obvious  than  that  the  only  genuine  and  effective  an^f- Galilean  party 
in  Ireland  v/as  that  of  the  Catholics — for  their  object  is  to  consolidate 
the  strength,  and  increase  the  resources  of  the  empire  ;  not  merely 
to  contribute,  as  they  do,  to  every  defeat  which  the  enemy  meets, 
but  to  render  it  quite  impossible  that  he  should  ever  succeed,  by 
combining  the  entire  nation  in  the  defence  of  their  king  and  consti- 
tution. Our  first  desire,  and  the  motives  which  govern  us,  are  to 
take  away  from  France  even  the  hope  of  success  by  removing  those 
excuses  of  distrust,  and  dissension,  and  weakness  iii  this  country, 
which,  at  present,  are  really  so  many  temptations  to  the  enemy  to 
invade  us.  We  would  fain  excite  a  national,  and  Irish  party, 
capable  of  annihilating  any  foreign  oppressor  whatsoever,  and 
devoted  to  the  amelioration  of  this  our  native  land.  There  is, 
indeed,  a  French  party  that  does  exist  in  Ireland — a  party  most 
useful  to  the  views  and  designs  of  France.  It  is  the  party  of  the 
present  ministry — that  party  which   exerts  its   vicious  energies    to 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  87 

divide,  distract,  and  oppress  the  realm — that  loads  the  nation  with 
the  weiglit  of  ill-judged  taxation,  and  employs  the  money,  wrung 
from  poverty  and  distress,  in  fomenting  internal  dissensions — in 
calumniating  the  L-ish  people  to  each  other — accusing  the  Catholics 
of  disloyalty  because  they  seek  the  rights  of  the  constitution — 
charging  the  Protestants  with  bigotry,  and  yet  encouraging  them  to 
become  intolerant.  It  is,  in  fine,  this  party  which  desolates  the 
country,  and  then  talks  to  us  of  our  growing  prosperity." 

Mr.  O'Connell  then  proceeded  to  speak  of  Mr.  Grattan, 
and  paid  him  the  following  warm  and  generous  tribute : — 

"  He  could  not  sit  down  without  entreating  of  his  learned  friend,  Mr. 
O'Gorman,  to  withdraw  his  opposition  to  the  present  motion.  Let 
not  our  enemies  be  able  to  boast  that  there  was  a  single  dissenting 
voice  among  the  Catholics,  upon  the  subject  of  Ireland's  best  and 
last  resource,  Henry  Grattan.  Surely  that  learned  gentleman  can- 
not be  insensible  to  what  that  illustrious  and  genuine  patriot  has  done 
and  suffered  in  the  cause  of  his  country,  if  other  evidence  were 
wanting  of  his  love  for  his  devoted  country.  Alas,  poor  Ireland  ! 
the  active  hatred  of  his  enemies,  which  he  has  so  long  sustained, 
would  alone  demonstrate  it. 

"  That  gi'eatest  foe  Ireland  ever  experienced — her  first  and  deepest 
curse — the  late  Earl  of  Clare,  honoured  Grattan  with  his  deadly 
hate.  Can  we  forget  it,  how,  under  Lord  Clare's  auspices,  a  com- 
mittee of  the  House  of  Lords  turned  itself,  as  it  were,  into  a  committee 
of  assassination  of  Grattan's  character ;  and,  with  monstrous  effrontery, 
gave  to  the  public,  in  their  report,  what  they  did  not  themselves  believe, 
the  assertion  of  a  wretched  informer,  charging  him  with  treason. 

"  They  did  not  themselves  believe  it,  for  if  they  had,  not  only  their 
duty,  but  their  strong  and  infuriate  inclination  required  that  they 
should  prosecute  him  even  to  death. 

"■  At  that  melancholy  period  (and  may  heaven  avert  from  Ireland 
the  recurrence  of  such  another)  little  evidence  was  necessary,  when 
mere  accusation  could  almost  supply  the  place  of  guilt.  Let  this 
instance  of  the  vain  and  impotent  malice  of  the  enemies  of  Ireland 
show  the  extent  of  his  offence  in  serving  his  country. 

"  There  was  one  other  consideration  which  rendered  it  imperative 
on  the  learned  gentleman  to  abandon  his  opposition.  Let  him 
recollect  that  it  was  Henry  Grattan  '  that  watched  over  the  cradle 
of   Irish  independence,  and  that  he  walked   after  its  liearse  !'     Our 


88  Memoir  and  speeches  of 

country  is  entranced  in  the  deatli-sleep  of  the  Union ;  and  I  pity 
that  Irishman  who  does  not  feel  pleasure  in  repeating  with  me  that 
Henry  Grattan  is  alone  worthy  to  '  sound  the  glad  trumpet  of  her 
resurrection !' 

"  Surely  it  will  not  be  said  that  Catholic  ingratitude  diminished 
his  ardours.  He,  Mr.  O'Connell,  felt  that  the  sin  of  ingratitude 
was  heavy  upon  the  Catholics,  while  they  seemed  to  hesitate,  but  for 
a  moment,  on  this  subject.  He  would  not,  therefore,  detain  the 
meeting  from  passing,  what  he  trusted  would  be,  an  unanimous 
vote." 

in  perusing  Mr.  O'Connell's  speeches,  at  the  remotest,  as  well 
as  at  more  recent  periods  of  his  public  career,  the  reader  can- 
not fail  to  be  struck  with  their  exceeding  applicability  to  the 
state  of  affairs  in  the  present  time.  As  in  the  first  quotation 
from  the  speech  we  have  just  been  dealing  with,  so,  in  multi- 
tudes of  others,  the  remarks  upon  the  conduct  of  those  in 
authority,  and  upon  the  actual  condition  and  future  prospects  of 
the  empire  in  its  parts,  and  as  a  whole,  might  be  spoken  at 
the  present  day  in  Concliation  Hall. 

The  cause  of  this  lies  with  the  government  of  England. 
Speaking  of  the  latter,  without  any  present  reference  to  parti- 
cular ministries,  or  prominent  individuals  who  controlled  and 
directed  it  at  various  times.  The  policy,  or  more  correctly 
designating  it,  the  malignant  infatuation  of  hostility  to  Ireland 
and  to  Irish  interests,  which  has  so  constantly,  and  with  such 
shameful  consistency,  ruled  the  conduct  of  that  government  in 
dealing  with  Irish  matters,  has,  of  itself,  necessitated  an  equally 
constant  and  far  more  honourable  consistency  of  popular  de- 
nunciation. 

The  designs  of  the  men  who  wield  the  British  government  in 
the  present  day,  milder  and  gentler  as  are  the  means  by  which 
they  essay  to  work  them  out,  have  their  origin  in  the  same 
spirit  of  fiendish  inveteracy  against  Ireland,  her  religion  and 
her  people,  as  the  more  bold,  and,  alas  !  fatally  successful  plans 
and  efforts  of  the  British  government  in  1799,  and  many  a 
bitter  year  afterwards.  It  can  then  be  matter  of  little  wonder 
to  find  that  the  expressions  of  indignation  and  execration,  which 
evil  intentions  and  actions   provoked  at  former  periods,  should 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  89 

be   found   perfectly    and   powerfully    applicable,    when   similar 
provocations  are  making  themselves  manifest  again. 

On  the  9th  of  February  occurred  another  of  the  occasions, 
now  fast  multiplying,  to  test  Mr.  O'Connell's  abilities  for 
leadership,  in  the  important  points  of  conciliating  opposing 
sentiments,  obviating  the  difficulties  suggested  by  the  timid,  the 
silly,  or  the  dishonest,  and  clearing  away  the  obstructions 
wantonly  thrown  up  to  arrest  or  divert  the  popular  move- 
ment. 

In  the  current  of  this  debate,  as  in  that  of  the  preceding 
debate  of  this  month,  there  was  strong  evidence  of  a  design,  on 
the  part  of  a  few  individuals  in  Dublin,  to  get  into  their  own 
hands  the  exclusive  management  of  Catholic  affairs.  Ivlr. 
O'Connell,  while  he  entirely  defeated  this  effort,  and  kept 
the  Catholic  Committee  on  its  liberal  and  more  popular  basis, 
yet  so  managed  matters  as  to  have  been  appealed  to  by  one  of 
the  chief  parties  in  the  debate  to  compose  the  differences  that 
were  agitating  the  meeting. 

His  speech  for  this  purpose  was  as  follows  : — 

<'  Mr.  M'Donnell's  motion  is  for  au  adjournment  for  a  fortnight, 
and  the  proposal  has  been  offered  on  such  reasonable  grounds,  that  I 
give  it  my  most  cordial  support.  Let  it  not  be  supposed  that  I  am 
actuated  by  any  personal  feeling,  or  that  1  secretly  indulge  a  hope  of 
becoming  one  of  the  persons  who  shall  be  entrusted  with  your  peti- 
tion. High  as  I  esteem  the  honour,  I  am  not  endeavouring,  by  any 
means,  direct  or  indirect,  to  obtain  it.  I  think  not  so  highly  of  my- 
self, and  I  must  declare  that  it  would  be  to  me  a  most  pleasing  cir- 
cumstance if  there  could  not  be  found  a  more  suitable  individual  than 
myself.  I  conjure  my  countrymen  not  to  suppose  that  I  would  make 
the  cause  of  my  native  land  subservient  to  any  idle  or  criminal  ambi- 
tion. I  reject,  with  scorn,  the  foul  imputation.  I  seek  only  for 
unanimity  among  Catholics,  and  I  leave  to  others  the  glory  of  divid- 
ing the  body.  I  do  not  wish  to  speak  harshly  ;  I  have  often  been 
mistaken,  but  I  cannot  avoid  saying  that,  unfortunately,  I  have  wit- 
nessed in  the  discussion  of  this  day,  more  violence  than  should  have 
entered  into  the  consideration  of  slaves.  I  do  not  suppose  that  the 
gentlemen  act  from  base  or  unworthy  motives ;  but  I  say  that  error 
has  entered  their  hearts,  and  I  lament  its  baneful  effects  in  the  divi- 
sion which  it  must  inevitably  cause  among  the  Catholic  body.    When 


90  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

are  our  petty  and  miserable  squabbles  to  have  an  end  ?  Are  we  not 
allowed  to  go  into  open  air  ?  But  must  we  decide  on  the  impulse  of 
the  moment,  with  all  the  evil  effects  of  division  and  distraction 
whereas  by  an  adjournment  of  a  fortnight,  we  would  become  unani- 
mous. I  do  not  give  up  my  opinion  of  the  necessity  of  delegation  ;  but 
1  would  rather  forego  the  advantages  resulting  from  delegation, 
than  weaken  the  effect  of  your  petition  by  dividing  the  committee  on 
the  question.  The  petition  must  go  before  both  houses  of  parliament, 
and  its  merits  must  be  discussed,  but  I  will  not,  by  pressing  a  divi- 
sion, afford  an  argument  to  your  enemies  to  identify  the  sentiments 
of  a  few  men  in  this  committee,  with  the  voice  of  five  millions  of  per- 
sons. It  has  been  proved  to  you  this  day,  that  the  sentiments  of 
several  populous  and  respectable  districts  are  indubitably  in  favour  of 
having  their  petition  committed  to  the  care  of  delegates  ;  but  I  will 
concede  the  point,  for  I  would  think  myself  criminal  if  I  should 
divide  the  committee.  My  Lord  Ffrench,  I  entreat  you  to  consider, 
if  it  is  not  an  evU  of  the  utmost  magnitude  to  divide  us,  as  it  will 
show  to  our  enemies,  who  are  secretly  exulting  at  the  prospect  of 
division — that  we  are  to  the  last  a  divided,  and,  thei'efore,  a  con- 
temptible people — for  objects  for  the  derision  of  our  malignant  ene- 
mies. See  the  predicament  we  are  reduced  to.  We  are  charged 
with  having  a  faction  amongst  ourselves,  and  we  ask  for  deliberation 
for  a  fortnight,  which  would  render  us  unanimous.  It  has  been  said 
that  I  am  anxious  to  become  one  of  your  delegates ;  I  solemnly 
assure  you  that  I  am  not.  Some  of  my  friends  have  often  expressed 
their  wish  that  I  might  become  the  object  of  your  choice,  but  I  did 
say  that  I  could  not  have  that  honour.  So  impressed  am  I  with  the 
necessity  of  being  unanimous,  that  I  promise  the  gentlemen,  if  they 
consent  to  adjourn,  that  I  shall,  at  the  next  meeting,  vote  against 
delegation.  (Cries  of  '  hear,  hear  ;'  Mr  Keogh  seemed  to  declare 
that  he  and  his  friends  consented.)  I  thank  the  gentleman  for  his 
concession  :  I  hail  it  as  a  happy  omen  ;  it  is  the  voice,  it  is  the  heart, 
it  is  the  support  of  his  venerated  father.  (Hear,  hear,  hear.)  We 
now  are  actuated  by  a  proper  feeling  ;  for  it  is  by  perfect  unanimity 
alone  that  we  can  triumph.  You  no  longer  afford  your  enemies  the 
malignant  gratification  of  seeing  dissension  among  you.  It  is  thus 
you  conquer  the  bigotry  of  your  opponents  ;  not  '  by  frowning  and 
dignified  silence  ;'  but  by  heart-felt  unanimity.  (Hear,  hear.)  It  is 
thus  you  put  them  down  ;  and  let  us  no  longer  be  a  miserable  or 
divided  people,  but  a  great  and  ixnanimous  people,  whose  voice  is 
justice,  and  must  be  laAv.     (Loud  applause,)" 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  91 

The  conciliation  of  personal  differences,  and  closing  up  of 
divisions  which  Mr.  O'Connell  thus  exhorted  them  to  ;  and  with 
success  on  this,  as  on  other  occasions,  was  the  more  necessary  to 
the  Catholics,  as,  within  a  very  few  days,  their  committee  had 
to  enter  upon  an  external  struggle  for  its  very  existence. 

The  wretched  government  of  the  day  now  conceived  the  idea 
of  waging  a  more  active  warfare  against  the  Catholic  agitators 
than  had  been  for  a  considerable  period  attempted.  There  had 
always,  indeed,  been  a  kind  of  government  undergroid ;  even  when 
the  popular  eftbrts  were  limited  to  the  simplest  and  humblest  form 
of  petitioning.  It  was  rated  as  a  degree  of  audacity  scarcely  to 
be  tolerated,  that  they  should  avail  themselves  of  what  limited 
portion  of  the  constitution  was  allowed  to  them,  to  seek  for 
more ;  that  the  oppressed  and  aggrieved  race  should  make  use 
of  the  partial  relaxations  yet  accorded  from  their  unjust  bondage, 
to  labour  for  its  entire  abolition.  The  cant-phrases  of  the 
practisers  and  advocates  of  oppression — phrases  such  as  we  see 
in  the  articles  of  English  newspapers  at  the  present  day,  and  in 
the  reports  of  English  parliamentary  speakers — were  hurled 
against  all  who  spoke,  above  their  breath,  of  wrongs  to  be 
redressed,  privileges  to  be  restored,  rights  to  be  conceded. 
"  Disturbers,  seducers  of  the  people,  interested  and  mercenary 
demagogues,  selfish  and  hollow-hearted  agitators,"  such  are  the 
holiday  and  lady  terms  with  which,  then,  as  now,  those  have 
been  greeted,  who  attempt  to  act  on  the  great  principle  that  man 
is  not  created  for  his  own  ease  and  his  own  purposes  alone — 
that,  while  his  first  and  highest  duty  is  to  heaven,  the  second 
great  injunction  of  our  divine  Redeemer,  man's  duty  towards  his 
neighbour,  has  an  enlarged  but  most  relevant  and  imperative 
application  in  the  duty  he  owes  his  country. 

The  campaign  the  government  had  resolved  upon  in  this 
year,  brought  as  little  of  credit  or  benefit  to  them,  as  there  was 
of  justice  in  undertaking  it.  In  fact,  they  recklessly  plunged 
themselves  into  what  was,  on  their  part,  nothing  other  than  a 
most  undignified  squabble  with  the  Catholics.  The  causes  of 
their  doing  so  were  not  far  to  seek.  The  unhappy  Perceval, 
and  his  miserable  colleagues,  had  their  religious  bigotry  inflamed 
and  exasperated,  by  the  alarm  which  their  political  bigotry  had 
taken  from  the  Repeal  agitation  of  the  preceding  year,  cordially 


92  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

cauffht  up  aim  assisted,  as  it  had  been,  by  the  Catholic  leaders. 
The  pretext  for  interference  with  Catholic  agitation  this  year 
the  system  which  had  been  adopted  in  constituting  the  Catholic 
Comiiiittee,  partook  of  the  nature  of  delegation,  and  so  came 
under  the  terms  of  the  Penal  Act  of  1793,  against  "  Conven- 
tions." In  so  far  as  there  was  any  ground  for  this  charge,  Mr. 
O' Council  stood  exonerated,  with  his  party,  from  all  blame; 
as  the  incautious  resolution,  which  was  said  to  have  involved 
them,  was  passed  in  his  absence  from  Dublin. 

The  government  commenced  the  war  by  the  following  letter, 
of  which  copies  had  been  sent  to  all  the  sheriffs,  chief  magis- 
trates, &c.,  throughout  the  country  : — 

"Dublin  Castle,  February  12,  1811. 

"  Sir — It  being  reported  that  the  Eoman  Catholics,  or  some  part  of  them, 
in  the  countv  of  ,  are  to  be  called  together,  to  nominate  or  appoint 

persons  as  representatives,  delegates,  or  managers,  to  act,  on  their  behalf,  as 
members  of  an  unla'.rful  assembly  sitting  in  Dublin,  and  caUing  itself  the 
CathoUc  Committee ;  you  are  required,  in  pursuance  of  the  provisions  of  an 
act  of  the  33rd  of  the  king,  chapter  29,  to  cause  to  be  arrested,  and  commit  to 
prison  (unless  bail  shall  be  given,)  all  persons  vithin  your  jurisdicion,  who 
shall  be  guilty  of  giving,  or  having  given,  or  of  publisldng,  or  having  pub- 
lished, or  of  causing,  or  having  caused  to  be  given,  or  published,  any 
written,  or  other  notice  of  the  election  and  appointment,  in  any  manner,  of 
such  representative,  delegate,  or  manager,  as  aforesaid ;  or  if  attending, 
voting,  or  acting,  or  of  having  attended,  voted,  or  acted,  in  any  manner  in 
the  choice  or  appointment  of  such  representative,  delegate,  or  manager  ;  and 
you  are  to  communicate  these  directions,  as  far  as  lies  in  your  power,  forth- 
with, to  the  several  magistrates  of  the  said  county. 

By  command  of  his  grace,  the  Lord  Lieutenant, 

W.  W.  Pole. 

With  this  precious  communication,  there  was  forwarded,  to 
each  partv,  to  whom  it  was  addressed,  a  paper,  entitled,  "  some 
observations  and  extracts  concerning  arrests  of  criminals."  The 
*'  observations,  exracts,"  &c.,  concluded  with  this  passage : — 
"  As  at  this  time  the  attention  of  magistrates  must  naturally  be 
chiefly  turned  to  cases  of  a  seditious  nature,  some  extracts  from 
the  several  acts  of  parliament  made,  relative  to  such  offences, 
are  herewith  sent."  The  government  having  thus  so  thoroughly 
committed  itself,  and  tmdergone  the  open  defiance  we  have 
mentioned,  in  the  capital  itself,  determined  to  act.  The  Catho- 
hcs,  on  their  side,  determined  to  persevere — contending  that 
their  onlv  purpose  of  meeting  was  to  petition ;  and  that  that  ob- 
ject took  their  assemblage  out  of  the  scope  and  terms  of  the  Con- 


1 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,   M.P.  93 

vention  Act.     The  following  is  the  newspaper  report  of  the  first 
collision  : — 

"CATHOLIC    COMMITTEE. 

SATURDAY,    FEBRUARY  23. 

"TRIUMPH  OF  THE  IRISH  PEOPLE — INCONSISTENCY  OF  3IR.  POLE;    OR,  SECOND 

THOUGHTS    BEST. 

"  At  a  meeting  of  the  Catholic  Committee,  on  the  9th  instant,  a 
motion  of  adjournment,  till  this  day,  at  two  o'clock,  was  put  and 
carried.  ISlr.  Pole's  letter  of  the  12th  is  before  the  public.  About 
one  o'clock  some  highly  respected  Catholics,  of  rank  and  independent 
fortune,  entered  the  room,  but  the  chair  could  not  be  taken  before 
two.  At  half  past  one,  when  the  members  were  in  the  act  of  as- 
sembling,  Alderman   Darley   and Babington,   Esq.,   arrived, 

and,  in  their  magisterial  capacity,  addressed  Lord  Ffrench  and  the 
gentlemen  present  in  the  following  words : — 

"  Alderman  Darley — My  lord,  we  are  come,  as  magistrates  of  this 
district,  to  inquire  whether  the  persons  present  compose  the  Catholic 
Committee  ? 

"  (Here  Lord  Ffrench  was  called  to  the  chair His  lordship  com- 
plied.) 

"  Lord  Ffrench — ^I  beg  leave  to  ask,  on  what  accoimt,  or  how  are 
you  justified  in  obtruding  to  ask  the  question  ? 

"  Alderman  Darley — We  are  really  justified  by  the  Government. 

"  Lord  Ffrench — I  beg  to  be  understood,  that  though  I  feel  the 
highest  respect  for  the  laAvs  of  my  country,  that  while  I  feel  it  to  be 
your  duty  to  obey  those  laws,  yet  I  feel  it  my  duty  to  inquire,  for 
the  satisfaction  of  the  Catholics  of  Ireland,  how  you  are  authorized 
to  act  for  the  dispersion  of  this  meeting  ? 

"  Alderman  Darley — TVe  are  directed  by  the  government  of  the 
country,  and  w^e  trust  you  will  be  so  good  as  to  quietly  disperse. 

"  (Here  Mr.  Lidwell,  a  Protestant  gentleman,  of  great  respecta- 
bility, said :  '  I  feel  myself  here  on  so  loyal  and  constitutional 
ground,  that  I  icill  not  leave  this  room  unless  removed  by  the  strong 
hand  of  power') 

"  Lord  Ffrench — It  is  right  I  should  warn  you  of  the  danger  of 
your  thus  approaching  this  meeting  under  this  summary  authority — 
you  may  be  the  fii'st  person  to  disturb  the  public  peace. 

Alderman  Darley — We  sincerely  regret  that  it  has  fallen  to  our  lot 
to  discharge  this  painful  duty.     You  see  we  are  come  alone — we  are 


94  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

unattended,  even  by  a  single  constable.  We  feel  we  have  many 
friends  present.  I  repeat,  again,  tliat  we  regret  it  has  fallen  to  our 
lot,  but  our  duty  must  be  done. 

"  Lord  Ffrench — I  feel  a  high  respect  for  the  laws  of  my  country, 
and  I  have  only  this  favour  to  ask — Let  me  7iot  he  disgraced — let 
me  have  the  honour  of  being  the  last  man  to  leave  this  room. 

Mr.  Babington — We  feel  the  highest  respect  for  the  gentlemen  of 
the  committee — we  highly  respect  your  lordship.  If  your  sole  object 
in  remaining  here  be  to  try  the  legal  question,  we  will  do  anything 
to  facilitate  the  question.  Anything  like  force  is  repugnant  to  our 
feelings — we,  therefore,  hope  you  will  quietly  submit.  Bring  your 
action  against  us  in  the  legal  and  constitutional  way. 

"  Lord  Ffrench — Begin,  gentlemen,  at  that  end  of  the  room.  I 
shall  go  the  last.  1  have  got  my  night-cap  in  my  pockety  and  am  re- 
gardless ivhither  you  lead  me. 

"  Counsellor  O'Connell — It  is  impossible  that  from  any  man  in  this 
room  the  laws  should  meet  with  the  least  resistance,  but  tve  cannot 
compromise  our  country's  and  our  children's  rights.  If  you, 
gentlemen,  think  it  necessary  to  require  any  further  force,  I  beg  to 
assure  you  that  every  member  of  this  meeting  is  ready  and  willing  to 
submit  themselves  to  the  laws. 

"  Counsellor  Hussey — Alderman  Darley,  have  you  any  informa- 
tions, on  oath,  against  any  one  here  present  ? 

"Alderman  Darley — I  have  not. 

"  Sir  Edward  Bellew — I  wish  to  ask  the  magistrates  one  question. 
Whether  you  have  received  any  orders  from  government  to  disperse 
any  meeting  of  Roman  Catholics  ? 

"  Alderman  Darley — I  am  ordered  and  directed,  by  government, 
to  request  them  to  disperse,  be  their  business  what  it  may. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell — You  have  stated  that  you  were  ordered  to 
request ;  were  you  directed  to  disperse  the  meeting  ? 

"  Alderman  Darley — The  fact  is,  that  I  am  directed  not  only  to 
request,  but  to  order  the  meeting  to  disperse. 

"  Lord  Ffrench — Alderman  Darley,  would  you  shut  the  door  to 
petition  ? 

"  Alderman  Darley — Certainly  not. 

"  (Here  Lord  Ffrench  recommended  Alderman  Darley  to  return  to 
Mr.  Pole  for  further  instructions.  He  would  give  government  an 
opportunity  of  reconsidering  the  subject — the  meeting  were  re- 
solved— at  present  his  lordship  would  not  call  it  the  Cntholic  Com- 
mittee.) 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  95 

"  Alderman  Darley — I  will  go  up  to  Mr.  Pole,  if  you  will  permit 
Mr.  Babington  to  remain  here.  To  this  proposition  the  meeting 
gave  its  full  assent ;  and  Alderman  Darley  '  icent  up  the  hill  and 
down  the  hill  again! 

^'  On  Mr.  Darley's  return  he  thus  addi'essed  the  chair : — '  My 
Lord  Ffrench,  I  have  waited  on  Mr.  Pole,  and  I  am  instructed  to 
say,  it  is  not  the  intention  of  government  to  prevent  the  Catholic 
Committee  from  meeting  to  prepare  or  forward  their  petition  ;  but  as 
your  lordship  said  this  is  not  the  Committee,  we  are  instructed  not 
to  molest  you.  And  as  your  lordship  expressed  your  surprise  at 
any  steps  which  would  be  taken  against  a  meeting  of  which  you  were  a 
member,  I  am  desired  to  say,  that  Mr.  Pole  would  be  happy  to  see 
your  lordship. 

"  Lord  Ffrench — In  order  to  prevent  any  misconception,  it  is  fit 
that  this  matter  should  he  distinctly  understood. 

"  Mr.  Darley — My  lord,  I  told  Mr.  Pole  that  you  were  chairman, 
and  have  been  desired  to  say,  that  Mr.  Pole  would  be  happy  to  see 
your  lordship. 

"  Lord  Ffrench — Feeling,  as  I  do,  on  this  occasion,  when  the  fate 
of  millions  is  concerned,  as  well  as  my  own  honour,  I  must  declare 
that  I  will  not  have  any  private  solitary  dialogues  with  Mr.  Pole. 
But  if  he  wishes  to  have  any  confei'ence  with  any  of  the  highly 
respectable  gentlemen  who  are  now  present,  I  would  recommend  to 
draw  three  or  live  persons  who  can  have  an  interview  with  him. 

"  Mr.  Darley — Mr.  Pole  would  be  happy  to  see  three  or  five 
gentlemen,  or  as  many  as  you  please.  Mr.  Darley  then  said,  that  he 
hoped  the  gentlemen  would  do  him  the  justice  not  to  suppose  that  he, 
as  far  as  his  own  feelings  were  concerned,  had  acted,  or  was  inclined 
to  act,  with  harshness. 

"  (Here  Mr.  Darley  received  the  thanks  of  the  chair,  which  were 
confirmed  by  every  gentleman  present.) 

"  Sir  F.  Bellew,  Bart. — I  wish  to  know  whether  Mr.  Pole  said 
that  he  wished  to  see  any  gentlemen  belonging  to  the  committee. 

"  Mr.  Darley  repeated  what  he  said  before  respecting  Lord  Ffrench 
having  expressed  his  surprise  that  any  steps  should  be  taken  against 
any  body  to  which  he  belonged. 

"  Lord  French — I  certainly  did  say,  that  I  was  astonished  at 
hearing  that  government  was  taking  any  steps  against  a  body  to  which 
I  belonged,  as  the  government  must  know  that  I  would  not  sanction 
any  illegal  meeting. 

"  Mr.  O'Gorman — My  Lord,  I  had  not  been  here  when  Mr.  Darley 


96  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

first  entered  the  room,  but  I  am  glad  that  I  have  now  an  opportunity 
of  asking  him  a  question.  I  came  here  to-day  for  the  purpose  of 
signing  a  petition,  and  I  wish  to  put  the  question  pointedly  to  him, 
for  I  determined  to  suffer  myself  to  be  committed  to  prison  in 
defence  of  the  rights  of  the  Catholic  Committee.  We  have  met  here 
to-day  for  the  purpose  of  signing  the  petition,  and  transacting  other 
matters  connected  Avith  the  furtherance  of  it.  I  therefore  ask 
Alderman  Darley  ichether  he  came  into  this  room  with  orders  to 
disperse  the  Catholic  Committee,  appointed  on  behalf  of  the 
Catholics  of  Ireland,  to  prepare  and  forward  their  petition  to 
parliament  ? 

"  Alderman. — No,  no,  certainly  not. 

"  (Here,  then,  is  the  real  triumph  of  the  Catholic  cause,  proving, 
at  the  same  time,  the  rashness,  irresolution,  and  inconsistency  of  Mr. 
Pole,  because  Alderman  Darley  expressly  declared,  several  times,  on 
his  first  entrance  into  the  room,  that  he  had  positive  orders,  from 
government,  to  disperse  the  Catholic  Committee,  assembled  to  perform 
any  act  whatsoever. 

*'  So,  then,  Mr.  Pole  can  act  wisely  on  second  thoughts,  particularly 
after  the  valuable  information  which  Alderman  Darley  communi- 
cated to  him  of  the  stubornness,  as  the  Wellesleys  may  call  it,  but 
more  truly  of  the  spirited  resolution  of  the  Catholics  to  demote  them- 
selves in  defence  of  their  rights.) 

"  Alderman  Darley  told  the  chairman  that  he  should  do  himself 
the  honour  of  informing  Lord  Ffrench  of  the  time  which  Mr.  Pole 
might  appoint  to  see  the  Catholic  gentlemen. 

"Lord  Ffrench  nominated  the  following  gentlemen  to  accompany 
him  when  he  shall  have  an  interview  with  Mr.  Pole : — Sir  Edward 
Bellew,  Bart.,  Cornelius  Keogh,  William  Murphy,  Daniel  O'Connell, 
and  Randall  M'Donnell,  Esqrs. 

"  The  chairman  having  been  moved  out  of  the  chair,  and  Sir 
Edward  Bellew  voted  into  it — 

"  Resolved — That  the  most  cordial  thanks  of  the  Catholics  of 
Ireland  are  due,  and  are  hereby  given  to  the  Eight  Honourable  Lord 
Ffrench  for  his  spirited  and  dignified  conduct  in  the  chair. 

"(Signed)  Edward  Bellew,  Chairman. 

"It  is  only  necessary  to  add,  that  the  meeting  was  numerously 
attended  by  the  most  respectable  country  gentlemen. 

"  Adjourned  to  Saturday  next." 

A  short  correspondence  ensued  between  Mr.  Pole  and  Lord 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  97 

Ffrench,  In  which  the  latter,  with  the  same  ability  and  dignity 
he  had  shown  in  the  chair  at  the  meeting,  again  foiled  the 
secretary,  who  wanted  to  make  it  appear,  that  the  deputation  of 
the  Cathohcs  were  anxious  to  see  him,  instead  of  his  having 
required  to  see  them,  as  had  been  distinctly  intimated  by  Mr. 
Alderman  Darley. 

Following  up  the  obvious  policy  of  endeavouring  to  conciliate 
the  prince  regent — at  that  time  "  in  all  but  name  a  king  ;"  and 
also  still  hoping  and  believing  in  his  friendly  intentions,  not- 
withstanding some  ominous  indications,  on  his  part,  of  want  of 
sincerity,  if  not  of  worse,  the  Catholics  met,  in  aggregate  meeting, 
on  the  8th  of  March,  at  the  Fishamble-street  theatre,  to  address 
him  on  the  occasion  that  had  called  him  to  the  throne,  and 
record  their  utter  dissent  from  the  conduct  of  the  Perceval 
ministry,  in  unconstitutionally  limiting  his  powers  in  his  new 
office. 

Mr.  O'Connell  made  two  speeches  on  this  occasion. 
The  first  was  simply  explanatory  of  the  objects  of  the 
meeting,  and  introductory  of  an  address  drawn  up  in  con- 
formity with  those  objects.  Its  adoption  was  seconded  by  Mr. 
Shell,  in  a  speech  of  great  talent,  and  carried  unanimously  ; 
as  was  also  a  motion  that  the  address  should  be  presented  to  his 
royal  highness  by  the  following  noblemen  and  gentlemen  : — 
Earls  Shrewsbury,  Fingal,  and  Kenmare;  Viscounts  Gormans- 
town,  Netterville,  and  Southwell ;  Lords  Trimleston  and 
Ffrench ;  Sirs  Thomas  Esmond,  Edward  Bellew,  Hugh 
O'Reilly,  Thomas  Burke,  and  Francis  Goold,  Barts. ;  Major- 
General  O'Farrell ;  Colonel  Burke;  Messrs.  G.  Bryan,  R. 
M'Donnell,  D.  O'Connell,  J.  Keogh,  Owen  O'Connor,  M. 
Donnellan,  Edward  Corbally,  T.  Wynne,  J.  Burke,  Wm.  Cop- 
pinger,  Ambrose  J.  Roche,  Edward  Murphy,  D.  W.  O'Reilly, 
George  Browne,  E.  Taaffe,  D.  Caulfield,  Esqrs. 

The  following  is  the  newspaper  report  of  his  first  speech  : — 

"  Sir  Edward  Bellew — At  the  suggestion  of  several  members  of 
the  Catholic  committee,  whose  wishes  are  considered  by  me  as  an 
imperative  law,  I  rise  to  address  you  at  this  early  period  of  the  meet- 
ing on  a  subject  on  which  universal  unanimity  prevails.  Indeed,  it 
were  impossible,  in  Ireland,  to  procure  among  the  Catholics,  on  the 

H 


98  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

subject  I  shall  submit  to  you,  a  single  dissentient  voice  ;  need  I  say 
that  I  allude  to  a  dutiful  and  loyal  address  to  his  Royal  Highness  the 
Prince  of  Wales.  I  shall  not  consume  the  time  of  this  meeting,  by 
entering  into  an  explanation  of  our  motives  for  presenting  the 
address  ;  and  I  feel  it  would  be  a  reproach  to  induce  any  argument 
to  justify  a  measure  so  anxiously  wished  for  by  the  Catholics  of  Ire- 
land. We  owe  it  to  his  I'oyal  highness  to  express,  with  heartfelt 
gratitude,  our  unfeigned  thanks  for  the  many  favours  and  benefits 
conferred  on  us  by  his  revered  father,  to  whom  we  are  perhaps 
indebted  for  the  privilege  of  meeting  here  this  day. — [Here  Mr. 
O'Connell  took  a  summary  view  of  the  political  state  and  incapacities 
of  the  Catholics,  at  the  accession  of  his  Majesty  to  the  throne  J — 
when,  he  said,  they  were  excluded  from  every  situation  of  trusty 
honour,  and  emolument ;  when  the  then  existing  laws  sanctioned  the 
breach  of  every  honourable  principle ;  when  there  was  hardly  a 
grievance  or  degradation  that  man  could  be  subject  to,  that  the  laws 
did  not  inflict  on  the  Catholics  of  Ireland.  Thus  stood  the  abomi- 
nable code  at  the  period  of  his  Majesty's  accession,  and  such  hard- 
ships and  slavery  did  it  impose,  that  the  mind  cannot  contemplate  on 
it  without  recoiling  with  horror  and  disgust.  By  adverting  to  this 
period  of  our  history,  he  did  not  wish  to  excite  religious  distinctions ; 
he  did  not  wish  to  rekindle  hatred  and  animosity  among  his  country- 
men ;  his  motives  were  widely  different :  they  were  to  lay  before  the 
meeting  the  obligations  we  owed  to  his  Majesty,  for  the  many  privi- 
leges which  the  Catholics  at  present  enjoy.  Though  we  continue  a 
degraded  race  in  our  native  land ;  though  we  still  suffer,  as  we  do, 
the  exclusion  from  every  situation  of  honour  and  of  emolument,  yet 
to  the  kind  interposition  of  his  Royal  Highness  the  Prince  of  Wales 
he  looked  forward  for  the  full  and  speedy  extinction  of  our  slavery. 
The  past  conduct  of  his  royal  highness  assures  us  that  those  disabi- 
lities which  distinguish  the  Catholic  from  the  Protestant,  can  no 
longer  continue.  Through  life,  on  every  constitutional  question,  he 
has  given  the  nation  a  convincing  proof  of  the  liberality  of  his  enlight- 
ened mind.  He  has  selected  the  friends  and  companions  of  his  pri- 
vate life  from  among  the  most  able  statesmen  that  England  ever 
produced.  Who  can  forget  that  Charles  James  Fox  was  the  bosom 
friend  of  the  Prince  of  Wales?  (Hear,  hear.)  AYho  can  forget 
that  the  Prince  of  Wales  expressed  his  anxious  desire  that  the  consti- 
tutional principles  of  that  immortal  patriot  should  be  impressed  on 
the  mind  of  his  infant  daughter  ?  Among  the  confidential  friends 
of  the  Prince,  let  it  be  recollected  that  the  Hutchinson  family  hold  a 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  99 

distinguished  place.  And  here  permit  me  to  remind  you,  that  if  there 
be  any  class  of  people  that  owe  that  great  and  good  family  a  special 
debt,  it  is  the  Catholics  of  Ireland.  He  had  almost  omitted  to  men- 
tion the  name  of  his  illustrious  countiyman,  Mr.  Sheridan,  who  has 
long  participated  in  the  friendship  of  his  royal  highness ;  but  he  was 
ashamed  for  trespassing  so  long  on  an  occasion  like  the  present,  when 
he  found  himself  incapable  of  describing  the  grateful  feelings  of  the 
Catholic  people  to  his  royal  highness,  to  whom  they  were  attached  by 
every  principle  of  loyalty  and  of  gratitude.  He  lamented  that 
through  the  misguided  folly  of  our  rulers,  the  country  had  already 
suifered  too  much.  It  had  been  involved  in  deep  calamity  ever  since 
the  baneful  measure  of  Union  had  been  forced  upon  distracted  Ire- 
land. (Hear,  hear.)  At  that  calamitous  period  the  argument  made 
use  of  by  the  parliament  of  England,  for  withholding  from  the  Prince 
his  undoubted  right,  was,  that  by  appointing  him  Regent,  they  pre- 
ferred him  to  William  Pitt.  The  offence  given  to  the  ministry  of 
the  present  times  seems  to  be,  that  the  people  prefer  his  royal  high- 
ness to  the  usurper,  Perceval.  It  is  observable  that  the  moment  the 
Regent  was  appointed,  W.  "W.  Pole  set  off  for  Ireland,  to  misrepre- 
sent the  Catholics  and  excite  discord.  He  (Mr.  P.)  seemed  to  fear, 
that  in  the  liberal  mind  of  the  Prince  something  would  be  found  that 
would  di'ive  faction  out  of  its  fastness.  He  took  the  most  decisive 
measures  that  his  little  mind  could  suggest.  Although  a  general 
committee  of  the  Catholics  of  Ireland  had  been  established  for  almost 
eighty  years,  he  had  the  audacity  to  issue  his  proclamation,  declaring 
that  it  was  an  illegal  assembly,  and  that  the  meeting  was  •guilty  of  a 
high  misdemeanour.  He  thus  thought  proper  to  pronounce  sentence 
without  going  to  trial ;  without  the  interposition  of  any  judge.  He 
said  he  acted  under  the  advice  of  a  judge,  who  is  not  a  native  of  this 
country,  and  who  is,  therefore,  ignorant  of  the  Irish  character.  He 
admitted  that  the  judge  was  an  accomplished  gentleman  and  an  able 
lawyer,  but  Irishmen  would  not  submit  to  be  ruled  by  special  plead- 
ings and  English  technicality.  But  to  return  to  the  subject  of  the 
letter.  It  appeal's  that  it  was  the  first  act  of  his  royal  highness's 
government  in  Ireland.  It  was  the  ill-advised  measure  of  William 
Wellesley  Pole,  the  secretary  of  all  ages.  We  know  it  could  not 
have  emanated  from  his  royal  highness.  As  for  Wellesley  Pole, 
he  was  first  secretary  to  the  king,  then  to  the  usurping  pro- 
tector, and  then  to  the  regent ;  but  his  fii'st  act  was  for  the 
purpose  of  putting  up  the  Orange,  and  dividing  Irishmen  ;  but 
this  was  not  the  act  of  the  prince ;  hi?  confidential  fiienJs'  conduct, 


100  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

in  both  houses  of  parliament,  is  a  sure  pledge  that  what  appeared 
as  the  first  act  of  his  regency,  was  unknown  to  him.  The  Earl  of 
Moira  had  disavowed  the  act,  and  he  was  not  only  a  friend  to  his 
country,  but  he  was  the  friend  of  his  prince ;  he  could  not  speak  in 
terms  strong  enough  of  the  noble  exertions  of  that  great  man  in 
behalf  of  his  country  ;  he  was  the  true  patriot,  not  like  the  men  who 
might  vote  for  the  Catholic  petition.  He  would  disavow  them  as 
they  voted  at  the  side  of  Perceval  against  their  prince — one  member 
for  the  county  he  belonged  to  had  done  so,  and  he  hoped  yet  to  meet 
him  on  the  hustings  to  express  the  contempt  he  felt  for  such  conduct. 
How  different  was  the  conduct  of  the  other  member  of  that  county  ; 
he  would  not  mention  him  by  name,  but  his  grateful  country  felt  his 
worth — the  Knight  of  Kerry.  [Mr.  O'Connell  then  adverted  to  the 
address  he  was  about  to  propose.]  It  had,  he  said,  the  concurrence  of  the 
existing  committee — it  had  the  approbation  of  that  venerated  man,  Mr. 
John  Keogh — in  short,  it  had  been  approved  of  by  all  the  friends  to 
the  Catholic  cause,  to  whom  it  had  been  submitted.  Mr.  O'Connell 
then  proceeded  to  read  the  address,  which  was  very  concise,  and  to 
the  following  effect : — '  We  take  leave  to  approach  your  royal 
Highness,  to  express  our  heartfelt  sorrow  for  the  grievous  malady 
with  which  our  revered  sovereign  is  aiJlicted.  We  remember,  with 
gratitude,  the  many  acts  of  favour  and  protection  which  his  Roman 
Catholic  subjects  have  received  during  his  reign.'  It  then  proceeded 
to  express  their  confidence  in  his  royal  highness,  and  how  pro- 
vidential it  was,  that,  at  such  a  crisis,  the  nation  had  such  a  prince  to 
uphold  the  principles  of  the  constitution,  and  to  protect  it  from  its 
foreign  enemies  ;  and  it  assures  his  royal  highness  that  every  hand  and 
heart  in  Catholic  Ireland  are  devoted  to  his  support.  It  then  proceeds 
to  lament  the  hateful  restrictions  with  which  his  royal  highness  is 
encumbered,  and  that  the  Catholics  of  Ireland,  feeling  the  delicate 
situation  in  which  his  royal  highness  was  placed,  would  forbear  to 
enter  into  a  statement  of  their  situation ;  and  it  expresses  an 
assurance  that  they  know  his  royal  highness  to  be  their  friend  ;  and 
that,  in  a  recent  instance,  they  had  experienced  the  favour  and  pro- 
tection of  his  royal  highness." 

Mr.  O'Connell's  second  speech,  on  this  occasion,  was  to  com- 
pose a  difference  that  had  sprung  up,  relative  to  an  amendment 
condemnatory  of  the  lord  lieutenant,  the  Duke  of  Richmond. 
This  was  proposed  by  Major  Bryan,  but  opposed  by  many 
influential  persons  present,  on  the  ground  chiefly  of  expediency  ; 


DANIEL    o'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  101 

though  some  went  so  far  as  to  praise  the  conduct  of  as  bad  a 
viceroy  as  Ireland  had  a  long  time  known.  At  length,  however, 
the  motion  was  carried  in  a  modified  shape,  praying  inquiry 
into  what  might  be  the  circumstances  justificatory  of  the  circular 
letter  we  have  before  given,  written  by  Wellesley  Pole,  the 
secretary  ;  and  that  if  none  such  could  be  found,  that  his  royal 
highness  should  dismiss  the  latter,  and  his  principal,  the  Duke 
of  Richmond. 

Counsellor  O'Connell — "  Sir  Edward  Bellew,  I  declare,  most  un- 
affectedly, that  my  feelings  are  much  interested  in  the  fate  of  this 
question.     On  the  one  hand,  if  the  motion  shall  pass,  it  is  to  be 
feared  that  some  of  our  best  friends  may  take  offence  at  it ;  on  the 
other,  shall  it  not  be  acceded  to,  it  may  encourage  a  supposition  that 
we  are  prepared  to  submit  to  every  species  of  insult  without  express- 
ing our  just  indignation.     A  noble  lord  and  two  other  gentlemen 
have  spoken  against  it,  whose  hostility  to  any  measure,  in  a  Catholic 
meeting,  must  be  considered  as  almost  fatal  to  that  measure  ;  but  in 
this  case  it  will  be  forgotten,  at  a  future  day,  what  course  of  argu- 
ment they  pursued,  when  their  opposition  to  the  measure  will  be 
remembered.     No  gentleman  has,  however,  thought  of  praising  Mr. 
Pole,  although  some  eulogized  the  lord  lieutenant ;  none  has  been  so 
bold  as  to  attempt  that  which  would  rack  and  exhaust  invention  to 
make  it  palatable.     No,  sir  ;  it  has  been  found  necessary  to  squander 
the  public  money  in  purchasing  the  labours  of  hireling  prints,  and 
their  depraved  parasites,  to  bestow  diplomatic  wisdom  on  Mr.  Pole, 
and  military  skill  on  the  redoubtable  Lord  "Wellington.     What  man 
in    this  assembly   shall   be   found   voting   against    any   censure   of 
Catholics  upon  those  men  who  came  here  under  the  conviction  that 
they  thus  stand  pledged  against  your  claims,  and  must  be  prepared 
to  concur  in   every  measure  of  a  no-popery   administration.     Any 
men  who  could  accept  offices  under  a  Perceval  ministry  cannot  be 
friendly  to  your  emancipation.     The  Duke  of  Richmond  came  here 
as  a  military  lord  lieutenant,  and  I  suppose  Mr.  Pole  as  a  military 
secretary,  expecting,  in  all  probability,  that  a  display  of  their  talents 
might,  at   some   time,   be  essential,    and   particularly  amongst  the 
Catholics,  as  if  we  could  be  hostile  to  an  army  composed  entirely  of 
such.     The  career  of  his  excellency's  life  has  been  a  harmless  one  ; 
he  is  fond  of  amusement  and  the  convivial  circle ;  but  I  am  not  sure 
that  the  qualities  are  such  as  the  government  of  Ireland  needs  at  this 
moment ;  and  I  defy  his  panegyrists  to  produce  any  others.     It  has 


102  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

been  said  that  the  Orangemen  are  put  down ;  but  what  proof  have 
we  for  it  ?  I  have  been  informed  that  a  new  Orange  constitution 
has  been  framed  within  the  last  eighteen  months  ;  if  this  be  true,  to 
what  a  state  will  not  this  country  be  again  reduced.  Nothing  can  be 
more  deplorable  than  any  association  which  has  a  tendency  to  divide 
Irishmen.  Yes,  there  is,  to  us,  one  thing  more  deplorable  ;  and  that 
is  any  measure  which  may  create  division  amongst  Catholics- 
Having  said  so  much  respecting  the  Duke  of  Richmond,  it  is  but 
fair  to  observe,  that  there  is  no  proof  against  him  in  Mr.  Pole's 
letter ;  nothing  can  be  deemed  official  from  him  but  his  proclamation 
I  do  not  mean  to  dispute  about  words,  but  let  me  concede  what  is 
right,  and  say  that  some  more  evidence  of  the  duke's  concurrence  with 
Mr.  Pole,  is  wanting  to  justify  us  in  adopting  this  motion.  Is  it 
becoming  the  dignity  of  the  Catholic  body  to  censure  without  exami- 
nation— to  condemn  without  scrutiny?  Is  it  worth  our  while  to 
divide  this  meeting  about  a  cabinet  clerk?  It  is  quite  manifest,  that 
if  the  honourable  mover  presses  his  resolution  a  division  will  be  the 
consequence.  I  think  some  middle  course  may  be  adopted,  which 
may  save  us  the  necessity  of  dividing  the  Catholics.  I  am  sure  the 
gentleman  who  brought  forward  this  motion,  would  not  wish  to  insult 
the  prince,  or  the  meanest  individual  in  society  ;  that  gentleman  I 
am  proud  to  claim  as  my  friend ;  his  dignified  and  spirited  conduct, 
in  upholding  your  character,  entitles  him,  very  fully,  to  the  confi- 
dence of  the  Catholics  of  Ireland.  Whatever  decision  this  assembly 
may  come  to,  I  shall,  of  course,  assist,  to  the  best  of  my  abilities,  in 
furthering  our  common  cause  ;  but  in  the  hearing  of  my  countrymen 
I  declare,  that  the  passing  of  this  resolution  will  provoke  the  enmity 
of  a  powerful  party  in  our  own  body,  with  whom  the  Duke  of 
Richmond  is  personally  acquainted.  The  great  objection  to  this 
petition  is,  that  it  demands  what  is  impracticable ;  you  address  the 
prince  regent  to  remove  the  Irish  executive,  and  sure  you  do  not 
mean  to  say  that  it  is  in  his  power  to  do  so.  ;See  what  comes  of  it — if 
you  agree  to  this  motion,  you  certainly  insult  the  regent,  because  you 
ask  him  to  grant  a  favour  which  it  is  not  in  his  power  to  bestow,  and 
on  his  refusal  you  may  be  tempted  to  say,  that  he  will  not  do  all  he 
can  to  conciliate  Ireland.  I  know  the  artillery  had  been  prepared  to 
intimidate  a  constitutional  and  unresisting  assembly  of  gentlemen. 
I  know  the  military  were  at  new  quarters  to  co-operate  in  the  mighty 
plan.  I  know  that  the  city  of  Dublin  might  be  compared,  on  that 
day,  to  a  place  besieged,  but  all  these  occurrences  are  not  sufficient 
to  justify   a   measure  not  well  digested,  and  which  Avill  infallibly 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,  ESQ.,  M.P.  103 

divide  the  Catholics  once  more.  Let  me  suggest,  by  way  of  accom- 
modating the  diiference,  an  amendment ;  I  am  not  prepared  with 
one,  but  the  substance  of  it  would  be,  to  refer  this  question  to  the 
next  meeting  of  the  Catholic  committee,  for  them  to  consider  the  pro- 
priety of  petitioning  parliament  on  the  subject ;  and  if  the  committee 
shall  take  it  up,  and  address  for  the  removal  of  the  lord  lieutenant 
and  Mr.  Pole,  there  is  no  doubt  but  it  will  take  place.  I  would  leave 
the  discussion  of  this  question  altogether  to  the  committee ;  this 
course  of  mine  may  not  be  the  best,  but  it  is  well  meant;  would  it 
not  be  a  cruelty  to  the  Catholics  to  cause  a  division  amongst  them 
for  the  sake  of  Mr.  Pole  ?  I  may  be  told,  the  gentlemen  of  the  com- 
mittee would  be  against  the  introduction  of  this  question  ;  if  so,  let 
them  decide  according  to  their  judgment  in  the  committee,  but  let  us 
not  persist  in  this  miserable  practice  of  counting  noses  at  an  aggre- 
grate  meeting.  Gentlemen  may  say  the  committee  may  be  wrong, 
and  an  aggregate  meeting  right,  and,  therefore,  persevere  in 
causing  a  division  ;  I  think,  although  there  may  be  a  majority  for 
the  motion,  the  minority  will  be  triumphant.  We  stand  upon  high 
ground  at  present,  let  us  not  descend  from  it  by  mean  or  vindictive 
measures.  I  shall  not  detain  you  longer,  than  to  entreat  gentlemen 
to  consider  the  fatal  consequences  of  dividing  the  Catholics.  By 
persevering  and  carrying  this  motion,  you  most  certainly  will  insult 
the  prince,  although  unintentionally.  See  what  a  victory  will  be 
to  your  enemies  to  put  one  Catholic  name  against  another  when  you 
divide.  My  God  !  are  gentlemen  so  wedded  to  their  own  opinions 
as  not  to  yield  a  little  for  the  sake  of  unanimity  ?  For  my  jDart  I 
am  always  ready  to  concede  any  opinion  or  measure  of  my  own, 
when  a  better  may  be  offered  ;  and  I  shall  always  do  so  when  a  doubt 
occurs  to  me  that  my  own  opinion  may  be  correct.  I  earnestly 
conjure  you  not  to  leave  it  in  the  power  of  your  calumniators  to  say, 
tliat  you  have  proceeded  beyond  the  bounds  of  discretion.  I  will  now 
move,  as  an  amendment  to  Major  Bryan's  motion,  that  the  considera- 
tion of  this  question  be  referred  to  the  members  of  the  general 
committee,  at  their  next  meeting." 

On  the  20th  of  April,  1811,  there  was  another  discussion  in 
the  Catholic  Committee,  Lord  Fingal  in  the  chair,  on  the 
instructions  to  be  given  to  the  delegates  who  were  to  go  to 
England  with  the  Catholic  address  and  petition  to  the  prince 
regent.  Mr.  O'Connell  announced  the  impossibility  of  his 
forming  one  of  the  number  owing  to  professional  engagements  ; 


104  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

and  supported  a  motion  of  Sir  Edward  Bellew,  for  disclaiming, 
on  the  part  of  the  Catholic  Committee,  "  any  right  to  control 
the  delegates." 

The  base  manner  in  which  the  hopes  of  the  Catholics  were 
excited,  and  the  delusive  nature  of  the  assurances  with  which 
they  were  fed,  of  the  good  will  of  the  prince  regent  towards 
them,  will  appear  from  a  few  sentences  which  we  will  quote 
from  his  speeches  on  this  occasion. 

"  He  earnestly  deprecated  all  division  at  a  time  when  the 
Catholics  of  Ireland  were  so  near  emancipation — a  moment  when 
the  accomplishment  of  their  ardent  wishes,  the  fulfilment  of  their 
longing  expectations,  and  the  reward  of  their  unwearied  labours 
were   in  view — when   their   emancipation  was  considered  at  hand 

Let  them  not  fear  that  in  going  forward  to 

present  the  petition  with  the  address  they  would  offend  the  prince. 
Could  he  suppose  such  an  event ;  he  (Mr.  O'Connell)  solemnly 
declared,  from  the  feelings  of  genuine  loyalty  in  his  heart  to  the 
prince,  he  would  give  up  any  question  sooner  than  incommode  his 
royal  highness.     But  it  was  not  the  case.     The  prince  has  shown 

how  he  regards  the  true  principles  of  the  constitution 

such  a  petition  would  give  satisfaction,  not  displeasure,  to  him,  and 
so  he  would  venture  to  prophesy  ;  the  delegates  would  find  it." 

The  bigoted  and  pettifogging  hostility  of  the  ministry  to 
the  Catholic  claims  continued  to  betray  them,  during  the  course 
of  this  year,  into  several  of  those  "  mistakes"  which,  in  matters 
of  state  policy,  are  held  by  those  who  assume  to  be  authorities 
as  to  statesmanship,  to  be  "  worse  than  crimes  ;"  both  designa- 
tions, however,  apply  to  the  acts  of  the  English  government  in 
181 1,  as,  unfortunately  for  poor  Ireland,  they  apply  to  the  acts 
of  her  English  governors,  throughout  the  weary  period  of  her 
subjugation. 

Amongst  the  most  ludicrous  of  those  "mistakes"  was  the 
prosecution  for  libel  of  the  individual  who  is  known  to  fame  in 
Ireland,  as  "  Watty  Cox,"  proprietor  of  a  periodical  of  a 
strange  rollicking  character,  which  he  entitled  The  Irish  or 
Watty  Cox's  Magazine.  One  of  Mr.  O'Connell's  speeches,  in 
mitigation  of  punishment,  will  give  the  reader  some  idea 
of  the    man  and   his    publication.     Cox  was  found  guilty  on 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  105 

two  indictments,  and  sentenced  to  the  pillory,  and  to  im- 
prisonment. 

Mr.  O'Connell. — "  My  lords,  I  am  compelled  to  intreat  your 
attention  to  a  few  observations,  by  the  particular  request  of  my 
unfortunate  client.  Had  I  merely  consulted  my  own  feelings  and 
judgment,  I  certainly  should  consider  anything  from  any  man 
unnecessary,  after  what  has  been  so  powerfully  submitted  to  your 
minds,  by  the  talents  of  my  eloquent  and  able  colleague.  I  not  only 
consider  it  unnecessary,  but  justly  apprehend  that  it  may  prove 
injurious,  by  diminishing  the  impressions  which  his  address  must 
have  created  on  this  court.  My  lords,  attempts  have  been  made  to 
blacken  my  client's  character,  by  describing  him  as  a  systematic  and 
common  libeller  ;  I  trust  that  insinuations  of  this  description  can 
have  no  weight  on  this  court,  or  diminish  the  claim  of  my  client  on 
its  mercy.  If  he  has  been  a  libeller  on  any  other  occasions,  he  is 
liable  to  be  tried  for  such  productions,  and  to  be  punished  if  con- 
victed. It  is,  in  truth,  a  libel  on  the  law  officers  of  the  crown,  to 
insinuate  that  they  would  suffer  to  escape  from  their  notice  such 
libels  as  could  affect  the  safety  of  the  state  ;  it  is,  of  course,  the  pre- 
sent duty  of  the  court  to  dismiss  from  their  minds  every  other 
blameable  publication,  and  confine  their  attention  to  the  publication 
immediately  before  them.  This  publication  is  written  in  a  manner 
which  must  greatly  circumscribe  the  range  of  its  mischief — absurd 
and  unintelligible,  extremely  vulgar  but  extremely  obscure — levelled 
to  the  language  of  the  common  people  in  its  expression,  but  entirely 
hid  from  their  understandings  by  its  incongruity.  Thus  it  is  unin- 
telligible to  those  on  whom  the  mischief  could  operate  ;  and  it  carries 
its  own  antidote  to  those  who  have  the  ingenuity  to  extricate  any 
meaning  from  the  wretched  mass  of  absurdity.  That  the  production 
must  be  quite  unintelligible  to  the  common  people,  clearly  appears 
from  this  circumstance  : — The  writer,  when  speaking  of  the  abomi- 
nable tyrant  of  France — I  use  the  words  of  my  client,  in  which,  in  his 
affidavit,  he  describes  the  present  ruler  of  that  country,  I  would  be 

understood  as  incapable  of  applying  such  phrases  myself  to  any  man 

the  writer,  1  say,  in  speaking  of  that  character,  clothes  him  in 
trophies,  emblems,  and  various  adjuncts,  not  only  very  ridiculous  but 
inapplicable,  and  in  no  place  suitable  or  characteristic,  quite  unfit  to 
unravel  his  enigma  or  develope  his  allegory,  but  well  adapted  to 
make  it  inexplicable  and  impenetrable.  For  instance,  he  invests  the 
ruler  of  France  with  those  naval  charactei-isiics  only  adaptable  to  a 


106  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

resistless  naval  power  that  rides  on  the  wave  the  lord  of  the  ocean  ; 
how,  when,  where,  did  he  acquire  trophies  and  honours  of  that  kind  ? 
"Was  it  at  Camperdown,  St.  Vincent's,  Aboukir,  or  Trafalgar  ?  Few 
could  understand  the  character  under  so  awkward,  so  strange  a 
description — few  could  know  the  man,  when  decked  in  attire  so 
suitable  to  conceal  or  to  mislead. 

"  My  lords,  as  to  punishment  by  considerable  fine,  strictly  speaking, 
punishment  of  any  kind  cannot  affect  him  in  a  pecuniary  way.  His 
poverty  protects  him  in  a  pecuniary  way ;  but  though  a  considerable 
fine  cannot  affect  him  in  a  pecuniary  manner,  it  may  affect  him  in  a 
manner  particularly  severe,  because  it  may,  indeed,  in  effect  it  must, 
amount  to  the  punishment  of  perpetual  imprisonment.  Perpetual 
imprisonment  is  unknown  to  our  law  ;  nay,  it  abhors  imprisonment 
that  is  measured  by  years  ;  and  although  such  punishment  has  been 
sanctioned  by  the  judicial  severities  of  modern  times,  it  was  entirely 
unknown  to  the  merciful  wisdom  of  the  law  of  our  fathers — the  common 
law  of  the  land.  The  common  law  abhors  a  lengthened  imprison- 
ment, that  melancholy,  miserable,  emaciating  punishment,  which 
shuts  a  man  out  from  the  fruits  of  industry,  the  comforts  of  society, 
the  joys  of  his  fireside. 

"  The  common  law  is  slow  in  inflicting  such  a  punishment ;  and 
that  high  crime  of  unjustifiable  homicide — the  highest  of  all  crimes 
not  punished  with  death — the  wantonly  sporting  with  and  destroying 
the  life  of  another,  the  common  law  considers  as  sufficiently  punished 
by  imprisonment  for  a  single  year.  Punishment  by  fine  in  this  case 
cannot  operate  against  income,  but  may  against  industry  ;  it  cannot 
reduce  competence  to  poverty,  but  may  reduce  poverty  to  want ;  his 
family  are  fed  by  his  labour  ;  exclude  him  by  imprisonment  from  the 
opportunities  of  labour,  and  you  will  punish  the  children  for  the 
crime  of  their  father,  and  decree  that  the  innocent  should  suffer  with 
the  guilty.  I  shall  not  resume  the  same  line  of  argument  by  which 
my  learned  colleague  has  established,  that  this  is  the  same  crime  for 
which  he  has  already  suffered,  and  that  by  punishing  him  in  this 
instance  you  punish  him  twice  for  the  same  offence.  The  two  accu- 
sations form  one  crime  or  they  do  not ;  if  they  form  one,  he  should 
not  be  punished,  because  he  has  been  punished  already :  if  they  form 
two,  the  first  should  not  be  adduced  to  aggravate  the  second,  because 
he  has  already  suffered  for  the  first.  I  shall  not  any  longer  detain 
your  lordships'  attention  ;  I  commit  my  client  to  the  clemency  of  the 
court,  in  the  confident  hope  that  you  will  feel  it  to  be  your  constitu- 
tional duty  not  merely  to  punish  the  incidental  licentiousness,  but  also 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  107 

to  preserve  the  exercise  of  a  free  press,  that  invaluable  blessing  to 
which  we  are  indebted  for  the  rights  which  we  enjoy — ^you  for  the 
dignified  stations  which  you  fill,  and  your  king  for  the  throne  on 
which  lie  is  placed." 

About  this  time  Mr.  O'Connell  received  a  handsome  address 
from  the  Catholics  of  Dingle  and  its  vicinity,  for  a  speech  of 
his  at  an  aggregate  meeting,  held  in  Fishamble-street,  Tuesday, 
May  28,  1811,  to  petition  against  the  measure  of  exchanging 
the  militias  of  the  two  kingdoms.  The  following  is  the  speech 
as  reported,  with  confessed  imperfections,  in  the  Freemans 
Journal  of  May  30,  and  a  promise  is  there  given  of  a  better 
report  in  a  few  days — which,  however,  never  was  given: 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  congratulated  the  meeting  upon  its  unanimity, 
and  upon  this  circumstance,  that  Protestant  gentlemen  of  so  much 
respectability  had  taken  a  part  in  their  proceedings,  from  which  he 
inferred  that  the  cause  of  the  Catholics  had  become  the  cause  of 
Ireland ;  and  he  observed,  that  if  it  were  not  for  the  miserable  divi- 
sions that  had  hitherto  existed  in  Ireland,  it  would  be  an  aggregate 
meeting  of  the  freeholders  at  large,  that  would  be  now  assembled 
to  protest  against  the  bill.  Mr.  O'Connell  then  proceeded  to  show, 
from  the  original  institution  of  the  militia,  that  the  bill  was  a  most 
unconstitutional  measure,  but  that  he  had  no  idea  of  discussing  it 
further  than  as  it  concerned  the  Catholics  themselves,  though,  from 
the  operation  of  balloting,  it  was  a  most  important  concern  of  every 
man  in  the  kingdom.  He  said  if  he  were  drawn  for  the  militia,  and 
could  not  procure  a  substitute,  or  if  a  substitute  was  not  allowed,  he 
would  not  volunteer,  and  would  endeavour  to  persuade  his  comrades 
to  follow  his  example. 

'*  Every  Catholic  soldier  must  hesitate  before  he  ventures  to  a 
country  where  the  rights  of  his  religion  may  be  denied  him.  It  is 
well  known  what  the  feelings  of  Mr.  Perceval  are  towards  the 
Catholics  ;  witness  his  conduct  towards  Maynooth,  an  establishment 
which  he  declares  his  regret,  publicly,  was  ever  formed — he  whose 
wish  it  is  that  the  Catholic  clergy  should  starve.  Is  it  the  duty  of 
the  Irish  clergy  to  persuade  the  Catholic  soldier  to  volunteer  to  a 
country  where  he  is  himself  proscribed  ?  As  it  was  found  impossi- 
ble, in  this  country,  to  separate  the.  clergy  from  their  flock,  this 
bill  is  to  tear  away  the  flock  from  their  clergy. 


108  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  then  adverted  to  Lord  Sidmouth's  attack  upon  the 
dissenters,  which  had  baen  defeated  by  the  dissenters  themselves, 
whose  constitutional  fiminess  and  unanimous  proceedings  ought  to  be 
a  lesson  for  the  Catholics  of  Ireland.  They  had  nipt  the  attempt  of 
their  enemies  in  the  bud.  They  had  shrunk  appalled  from  their 
measures.  Lord  Sidmouth  was  panic-struck  when  the  House  of 
Lords  was  assailed  by  500  petitions  from  the  people  ;  he  became 
dumb,  and  intolerance  was  vanquished.  This  measure  of  Lord 
Sidmouth  was  but  part  of  a  grand  conspiracy  against  all  religions 
but  their  own.  Mr.  Pole's  circular  letter  was  another  act  of  the 
conspiracy.  This  biU  formed  another  part  of  it,  to  take  away  our 
native  army  from  us,  as  the  army  of  Romana  had  been  sent  out  of 
Spain  by  Bonaparte.  In  aid  of  this  conspiracy  Mr.  O'Connell  said 
he  would  read  a  document  from  an  Orange  Lodge  in  Dublin,  dated 
the  24  th  day  of  April  last ;  a  hellish  association,  which  Mr. 
O'Connell  stated  was  encouraged  again  to  renew  its  atrocities, 
although  every  respectable  and  enlightened  Protestant  in  the  country 
beheld  it  with  disgust  and  horror. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  then  adverted  to  the  circular  letter  of  Mr.  Pole, 
which  it  appeared  had  originated  with  the  Lord  Chancellor  and  the 
Attorney  General,  upon  both  of  whom  Mr.  O'Connell  animadverted 
with  great  severity,  and  then  returned  to  the  bill,  which  he  observed 
was  not  a  transfer,  but  an  annihilation  of  the  Irish  militia — to  talk 
henceforward  was  idle.  The  moment  a  militia  soldier  is  enlisted 
he  is  liable  to  service  in  all  parts  of  the  United  Kingdom,  and  a 
militia  soldier  is  entitled  to  no  privilege  in  England,  as  such,  and 
when  there,  he  becomes  like  nothing,  or  like  anything  but  a  German 
soldier. 

"Ml-.  O'Connell  made  use  of  several  other  arguments,  and  con- 
tended that  it  concerned  the  Catholics  '  to  keep  watch  and  ward ' 
over  every  act  of  Mr.  Perceval." 

The  question  was  then  put  and  carried  unanimously. 

It  was  then  resolved  that  a  committee  of  five  gentlemen  be 
appointed  to  frame  the  petition,  viz.,  Mr.  Keogh,  Dr.  Drom- 
goole,  Mr.  Lawless,  Mr.  M'Donnell,  and  Mr.  Finlay ;  and  they 
having  retired,  shortly  returned  with  a  copy  of  a  petition  to  the 
House  of  Commons,  which  being  read,  was  unanimously 
adopted ;  as  was  another,  to  be  presented  to  the  regent,  after 
which  the  meeting  adjourned. 

The  address  to  Mr.  O'Connell,  from  Dingle,  in  testimony  of 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  109 

their  approbation  of  the  sentiments  he  delivered  on  this  occasion, 
was  adopted  at  a  meeting  described  as  of  "  the  clergy,  gentle- 
men, magistrates,  and  freeholders  of  the  town  and  vicinity  of 
Dingle,  held  in  that  town  on  the  15th  day  of  June,  1811,  in 
pursuance  of  public  requisition,  Mathew  Moriarty,  Esq.,  in  the 
chair,"  and  was  as  follows : — 

"  TO    DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ. 

«'  Sir — "We,  the  gentlemen,  clergy,  magistrates,  and  freeholders  of  the  town 
and  vicinity  of  Dingle,  assembled  pursuant  to  a  public  requisition,  desire  to 
express  to  j-ou  our  sense  of  your  unwearied  exex-tions  in  advocating  the  cause  of 
our  Catholic  countrymen. 

"We  ate  particularly  anxious  to  convey  to  you  our  decided  approbation  of 
the  manliness,  candour,  and  perspicuity  with  which  you  have,  at  the  aggregate 
meeting  of  the  Catholics  of  Ireland,  held  in  Dublin,  on  the  28th  ultimo,  deve- 
loped the  tendency  of  the  intended  transfer  of  our  militia,  and  displayed  the 
machinations  of  those  deluded  men,  who  style  themselves  Orangemen  and 
Purplemen. 

"  We  anticipate  from  your  exertion  of  talent  and  constitutional  firmness, 
the  most  beneficial  consequences  ;  as  that  exertion  has,  we  trust,  roused  to  the 
consideration  of  these  subjects,  every  individual  who  feels  interested  in  the 
welfare  of  the  country,  from  the  prince  to  the  freeholder. 

"  Your  object  is  the  same  as  ours  :  to  prevent  internal  feuds  and  animosities, 
which  have  been  hitherto  so  injurious  to  our  unfortunate  country  ;  and  to  pro- 
mote that  unanimity  which  can  alone  save  and  exalt  those  realms. 

' '  We  request  of  you  to  accept  our  most  cordial  thanks  as  a  small  tribute  of 
merit  pre-eminently  resplendent  on  every  occasion. 

"  And  be  assured,  that  it  has  made  an  indelible  impression  on  us,  who  repose 
a  pleasing  confidence  in  your  exertions ;  disregarding  and  despising  party  feel- 
ing, and  looking  only  to  the  cause  of  our  native  country,  equally  dear  to 
U9  all. 

*'  Signed,  by  order, 

"  Edward  Fitzgerald,  Secretary. 
"Dingle,  15th  June,  1811." 

Ml    O'Connell's  reply  was  in  the  following  terras : — 

*' Gen TLEMEK— Your  address  has  surprised  me  almost  as  much  as  it  has 
pleased  me.  I  cannot  but  owe  it  to  your  friendship,  that  you  have  noticed  so 
humble  an  individual.     I  am  proud  of  your  approbation. 

"  The  principle  on  which  I  have  been,  and  am  the  advocate  of  Catholic 
Emancipation,  is  not  confined  to  Ireland.  It  embraces  the  causes  of  the  Dis- 
senters in  England,  and  of  the  Protestants  in  the  Spanish  and  Portuguese 
territories.  I  need  extend  it  no  further — the  crime  of  intolerance  is  now 
confined  among  Christian  nations — almost  exclusively  to  England  and  her 
allies.  Arbitrary  as  the  military  ruler  of  the  French  may  be,  and  enemy  as 
he  is  of  civil  and  religious  liberty,  he  has  had  too  much  common  sense  to  com- 
mit the  useless  and  absurd  injustice  of  violating  conscience. 

"  For  my  part,  I  hate  the  Inquisition  as  much  as  I  do  the  Orange  and  Purple 
system,  and  for  the  same  reason.  The  man  who  attemps  to  interfere  between 
his  fellow-man  and  his  Deity  is,  to  my  mind,  the  most  guilty  of  criminals. 

"You    call    our    country   unfortunate — she    is    unfortunate    through    the 


110  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

dissension    of   her    children — dissension    has    degraded    her    character,    and 
annihilated  her  constitution. 

"  In  the  name  of  religion,  of  charity,  hate  and  rancour  have  been  dissemi- 
nated ;  but  a  brighter  era,  I  trust,  approaches  ;  and  now  it  is  the  sacred  duty 
of  every  man  who  is  faithful  to  his  king,  and  attached  to  the  independence  of 
his  native  land,  to  contribute  his  best  exertions  to  extinguish  every  cause  of 
animosity  and  pretence  for  disunion. — I  have  the  honour  to  be,  with  great 
respect,  your  deeply  indebted  and  faithful  servant, 

"Daniel  O'Connell. 

"  Merrion-square,  June  17,  1811." 


There  have  been  many  petty  sneerers  at  Mr.  O'Connell  for 
"  inconsistency,"  when  it  has  occurred  to  him  to  change  his 
line  of  policy  in  some  particular,  on  finding  himself  partially 
mistaken.  It  would  puzzle  these  "  small  deer"  to  point  out, 
at  what  time,  of  his  long  political  career,  he  has  ever  spoken,  or 
acted  inconsistently  with  the  convictions  and  sentiments  of  the 
foregroino^  letter. 

His  speeches  against  the  Union,  beginning  with  that  of  1800, 
and  constantly  occurring  throughout  the  long  years  since,  up  to 
the  present  day,  will  supply  another  test.  One  of  them 
delivered  some  weeks  before  the  date  of  the  occurrence  just 
noted,  is  so  brief,  that  we  give  it  here,  instead  of  throwing  it  into 
the  appendix.  The  occasion  was  a  dinner  given  in  May  7  th, 
1811,  by  the  Catholics,  to  several  of  their  Protestant  friends. 

"  Major  Bryan  proposed  the  health  of  Sir  James  Riddall 
whose  absence  he  regretted  was  from  indisposition.  To  this  toast 
was  added,  at  Counsellor  O'Connell's  suggestion, 

«*  The  Repeal  of  the  Union. 

Counsellor  O'Connell — "  Gentlemen,  when  I  proposed  that  a  Re- 
peal of  the  Union  should  be  coupled  with  the  name  of  that  virtuous 
patriot  and  friend  to  his  country,  Sir  James  RiddaU,  I  was  fully  im- 
pressed that  it  is  the  only  real  Irish  question  ;  and,  allow  me  to  say, 
that  every  Catholic  in  this  meeting  must  regret  the  absence  of  that 
worthy  Irishman,  and  the  more  so,  as  I  understand  it  is  occasioned 
by  severe  illness.  If  in  this  assembly  any  Irishman  hears  me  who  has 
mistaken  the  true  interests  of  his  country  (as  we  all  ai-e  liable  to  err), 
and  approved  of  that  fatal  law,  the  act  of  Legislative  Union,  this  is 
a  glorious  opportunity  for  us  to  speak  our  sentiments,  and,  by  depre- 
cating so  disastrous  a  measure,  convince  him  that  there  is  but  one 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,   M.P.  Ill 

opinion  on  the  subject  in  Ireland.  This,  1  believe,  is  the  first  time 
Catholics  and  Protestants  have  publicly  assembled  at  the  festive 
boai-d— alas !  the  first  time  we  have  sought  access  to  each  other's 
hearts.  If  such  meetings  shall  frequently  take  place,  and  I  trust  in 
God  they  will,  it  is  impossible  that  your  great  and  ancient  nation — 
your  nation  famed  for  every  physical  good  which  can  make  existence 
valuable,  and  which  has  given  birth  to  the  best  and  bravest  of  the 
human  race — it  is  impossible,  I  say,  that  any  minister  can  tyrannize 
over  you,  or  any  foe  effect  your  subjugation.  If  the  spirit  shall  go 
abroad  which  pervades  this  meeting,  it  is  too  much  to  expect  that 
your  enfranchisement  is  at  hand  ;  that  your  parliament  must  be 
restored !  As  it  is  the  habit  of  men  who  foUow  my  trade  to  talk 
much,  you  may,  perhaps,  fear  that  I  trespass  on  your  attention  ;  but 
I  shall  be  brief.  A  bigot — be  he  of  what  profession  he  may, 
whether  Catholic  or  Protestant ;  of  what  rank  soever,  whether 
monarch,  peer,  or  peasant ;  whether  his  brow  is  encircled  with  a 
diadem,  or  his  body  enveloped  with  rags — is  a  bigot  to  me.  Louis 
XIV.  disgracefully  treated  a  brave  and  skilful  warrior.  Admiral 
Duchene,  because  he  was  a  Protestant ;  and  Louis  XIV.  was,  there- 
fore, an  outrageous  bigot.  Our  gracious  pi-ince,  who  is  the  parent  of 
his  Irish  people,  has  given  an  earnest  of  what  we  may  expect  from 
him,  by  refusing  to  comply  with  the  corrupt  requisition  of  a  minister ; 
he  will  unite  us,  and  thereby  have,  instead  of  one  regiment  of  his  own 
Irish,  an  entire  nation." 

In  the  same  paper  which  contains  the  Dingle  address  to  Mr. 
O'Connell,  {Freeman s  Journal  of  Thursday,  June  20,  1811,) 
there  is  a  brief  report  of  an  incident  of  great  interest,  which 
occurred  in  the  British  House  of  Commons,  on  the  14th  of 
June,  in  a  debate  on  a  bill  relative  to  a  drawback  on  spirits. 

The  following  is  the  Freeman's  article,  containing  the  report 
of  the  incident  in  question : — ■ 

"repeal  of  the  union. 

"  To  the  support  of  a  measure,  in  which  the  well-being  and  politi- 
cal existence  of  Ireland  are  so  materially  concerned,  we  consider  the 
Freeman's  Journal  as  peculiarly,  and  in  an  especial  manner,  bound 
A  time  will  come  when  we  shall  speak  more  decided  language  on  this 
subject ;  at  present  we  revert  to  it  with  a  degree  of  satisfaction, 
which  it  would  be  difficult  for  us  adequately  to  describe. 

"In   the   debate   upon    the   distilleries,    Colonel    Hutchinson— to 


112  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

whom,  and  to  whose  family  we  have  so  often  had  occasion,  in  the 
name  of  the  country,  to  address  our  thanks — has  expressed  himself 
upon  the  baneful  consequences  of  this  unhappy  measure,  in  such 
unequivocal  and  glowing  language,  that  we  shall,  in  this  place,  quote 
the  entire  part  of  the  discussion  in  which  the  subject  is  mentioned. 
It  is  true  that  the  reader  will  find  it  substantively  detailed  in  the 
report  we  publish  of  the  debate ;  but  the  following  is  a  more  accu- 
rate account,  and  has  more  Irish  and  characteristic  feeling  than  any 
which  will  be  found  in  the  London  papers  : — 

"  *  Even  now,'  said  Mr.  Hutchinson,  '  Great  Britain  will  thankfully 
receive,  in  her  necessity,  the  raw  material,  the  corn  from  Ireland, 
while  she  would  illiberally  attempt  to  exclude  spirit — the  manufac- 
ture from  that  raw  material.  A  free  trade,  upon  no  duties,  or  equal 
duties,  was  the  principle  of  the  Legislative  Union.  This  principle 
has  been  effected  with  a  vengeance  as  against  Ireland ;  but  when  she 
required  the  same  principle  to  be  acted  upon  as  against  Scotland,  her 
trade  was  interdicted,  and  the  Union  violated.  Admitting,  however, 
that  the  Irish  distiller  did  reap  some  advantages  from  the  spirit  trade 
of  Ireland  with  this  country  (England),  was  she,  therefore,  to  be 
deprived  of  the  trade  itself?  If  so,  ivould  they  restore  to  this  coun- 
try all  that  she  had  lost  by  the  degrading  and  ahotninahle  measure 
of  the  Union  f 

*'  [Here  the  honourable  gentleman  was  interrupted  by  loud  cries  of 
*  order,  order,'  '  chair,  chair.'] 

"  The  Speaker  (Abbott) — '  The  honourable  member  will  do  well  to 
recollect  that  such  is  not  the  language  which  it  becomes  this  house 
to  hear  or  him  to  use,  in  speaking  of  a  grave  and  solemn  act  of  par- 
liament.'    (Cries  of  '  hear,  hear,  hear.') 

"  Mr.  Hutchinson — *  Sir,  I  trust  I  am  incapable  of  using  language 
unworthy  of  this  place,  or  of  myself.  In  saying  what  I  have  said,  I 
have  obeyed  the  dictates  of  feelings  of  which  I  am  not  ashamed  ;  and 
while  I  know  them  to  be  just,  I  know  not  why  I  am  to  suffer  the 
expression  of  them  to  be  dictated  to  me.' 

"  [Here  the  cries  of  '  order,  order,'  '  chair,  chair,  chair,'  became 
louder  and  more  general.] 

"  The  Speaker — '  The  honourable  member  will  be  pleased  to  see 
the  necessity  of  conforming  to  the  usages  of  this  house,  in  the 
expression  of  his  opinions.'     (Hear,  hear,  hear.) 

"  Mr.  Hutchinson — '  To  conform  to  the  usages  of  this  house  I  am 
in  every  way  disposed  (hear,  heai',)  but  my  first  right  as  a  member 
of  it  is  what  I  shall  never  willingly  resign.     (Order,  order.)     If  pri- 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  113 

vilege  of  speech  be  not  the  right  of  every  member  of  this  house,  I 
know  not  what  is.  I  have  always  thought  it  to  be  the  right  of  every 
member  of  this  house,  what  he  feels  honestly  to  declare  boldly.  My 
feelings  with  respect  to  that  measure  of  Union  have  been  strong  and 
uniform.  When  it  was  first  proposed,  I  foresaw  in  it  danger  to  this 
country ;  in  the  danger,  the  degradation  and  the  ruin^  of  my  own  ; 
and,  as  a  common  friend  to  both,  I  resisted  it  by  every  means  within 
my  power ;  and  am  I  now  to  be  denied  the  melancholy  privilege  of 
deploring  the  humiliating  state  to  which  that  measure  has  reduced 
my  country,  by  making  her  a  party  in  effecting  her  national  extinc- 
tion ?  Am  I  to  be  denied  the  right  of  complaining  that  she  has  been 
tricked  out  of  her  independence  by  promises  which  have  been  all 
violated,  and  hopes  which  have  been  all  blasted  ?  If,  however,  after 
all  this,  it  be  the  secret  determination  to  rob  her  graduallj^  of  the  very 
few  advantages,  and  those,  too,  of  partial  operation,  to  which,  under 
even  such  an  act,  she  may  be  entitled,  why,  then,  let  but  gentlemen 
avow  this,  and  let  the  Union  be  dissolved.'     (Hear,  hear.) 

"  "We  have  not  much  reason  to  boast  of  many  of  the  Irish  mem- 
bers ;  but  when  we  have  such  men  as  a  Hutchinson — men  who  glory 
in  the  name  of  poor  and  deserted  Ireland,  why  should  we  despair  of 
ultimate  triumph  ?  The  material  and  the  spirit  exist ;  time  will  pro- 
duce, and  at  no  distant  period,  the  renovation  and  re-establishment  of 
our  country." 

The  petition  which  had  been  drawn  up  for  the  meeting  against 
the  exchange  of  militias  between  the  two  kingdoms,  and  which 
had  there  been  adopted,  met  with  Mr.  Grattan's  disapprobation, 
as  containing  language  which,  he  stated,  to  render  it  unfit  for 
presentation  to  parliament.  This  opinion  of  his  was  announced 
at  a  meeting  of  the  Catholic  Committee,  on  Monday,  June  10. 
After  several  gentlemen  had  expressed  their  sentiments,  either 
of  concurrence  or  disagreement  with  Mr.  Grattan,  Mr.  O'Con- 
nell  interposed  in  defence  of  the  petition : — 

"  He  said  that  he  did  not  mean  to  trespass  more  than  one  moment 
on  the  time  of  the  meeting  in  giving  his  sentiments  on  this  question ; 
for  however  gentlemen  might  differ  in  opinion,  either  as  to  the  form 
or  substance  of  the  petition  adopted  by  the  last  aggregate  meeting, 
yet  he  rejoiced  to  see  that  there  was  but  one  feeling  evinced  by  the 
committee,  and  that  unanimous  feeling  was  to  do  the  Catholic  body 
justice.    He  concurred  altogether  in  what  had  fallen  from  Mr.  Keogh. 

I 


114  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

The  language  contained  in  the  petition,  where  applied  to  the  present 
administration,  was  strictly  true  ;  but  if  it  were  so  informal  as  not 
to  be  presentable,  in  its  present  shape,  he  did  agree,  (though  he  might 
be  wrong,)  that  it  were  better  to  amend  than  to  subject  the  Catholics 
of  Ireland  to  insult. 

"  It  was  the  opinion  of  Mr,  Grattan  that  the  petition  was  not,  in 
its  present  form,  presentable  to  the  House  of  Commons,  and  to  such 
an  authority  the  highest  respect  was  due.  Of  that  illustrious  states- 
man he  would  never  speak  without  being  animated  with  enthusiasm. 
No  man  ever  distinguished  himself  in  the  senate  house  as  Mr. 
Grattan  had  done  on  the  last  Catholic  debate,  during  his  spirited 
and  manly  reply  to  the  arguments  of  that  intolerant  bigot  Perceval. 
I  have  been  informed  that  that  little  contemptible  creature  assumed 
more  the  appearance  of  a  convicted  criminal,  receiving  the  just  sen- 
tence of  the  law,  than  of  a  man  placed  at  the  head  of  the  government 
of  England.  The  committee  should  not  have  met,  even  once,  without 
adopting  a  resolution  of  thanks  to  Mr.  Grattan  ;  and  he  trusted  they 
would  not  separate  to-day  until  they  had  expressed  the  gratitude  of 
the  Catholics  of  Ireland,  for  his  great  and  unrivalled  exertions 
in  advocating  their  cause.  He  observed,  that  with  regard  to  new 
modelling  the  petition,  the  opinion  of  Mr.  Grattan  was  entitled  to 
the  greatest  respect.  But  his  objections  were  applicable  to  the 
House  of  Commons  only,  after  the  bill  having  passed  that  house,  and 
not  the  House  of  Lords.  He  denied  that  the  members  composing 
the  delegation  had  any  power  to  alter  or  amend  the  petition  of  an 
aggregate  meeting.  If  the  committee  were  to  consent  to  innovations 
of  this  kind,  the  consequences  would  be  fatal  to  the  Catholic  interest, 
for,  in  doing  so,  they  would  convert  the  delegates  into  a  species  of 
ambassadors,  and  invest  them  with  a  power  quite  foreign  and  distinct 
from  the  nature  of  their  appointment.  If  it  should  be  found  that 
there  is  something  informal  in  this  petition,  let  us  revise  it,  either  by 
calling  an  aggregate  meeting  for  that  purpose,  or  let  us  adjourn  until 
next  Saturday,  by  which  time  we  shall  have  fuller  information  on 
the  subject.  For  himself,  he  had  no  hesitation  in  saying,  that  he 
approved  of  the  petition  in  its  form.  He  denied  the  argument  of  a 
gentleman  opposite,  who  asserted  that  it  was  a  libel  on  the  Pro- 
testants of  England  and  Ireland  ;  to  them  it  had  not  the  slightest 
nor  the  most  remote  application  ;  it  was  solely  applicable  to  the 
bigoted  proselyting  system  encouraged  and  acted  upon  by  the 
present  administration.  He  begged  leave  to  recommend  an  adjourn- 
ment  for  a  few   days,  and  if,  after  that  period,  it  should  become 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  115 

necessary  to  take  steps  in  order  to  revise  the  petition,  let  the  com- 
mittee take  the  necessary  measures,  distinctly  and  manfully,  by 
calling  an  aggregate  meeting. 

"  He  would  conclude  by  moving  the  question  of  adjournment  until 
Wednesday. 

"  The  motion  was  carried  after  a  few  remarks  from  some  other 
gentlemen  present,  and  the  committee  adjourned." 

It  was  subsequently  not  thought  necessary  to  alter  the  petition, 
had  even  time  allowed,  which,  however,  was  not  the  case,  as 
the  Catholic  claims  were  speedily  after  brought  under  discussion 
in  parliament. 

Cheered  by  their  success  in  the  first  collision  with  the  govern- 
ment this  year,  the  Catholics  determined  to  vindicate  the  right 
to  petition,  by  a  repetition,  on  a  larger  scale,  of  the  movement 
which  had  occasioned  that  collision  ;  accordingly  at  an  aggregate 
meeting,  in  Fishamble-street  Theatre,  on  Tuesday,  the  9th  of 
July,  the  Earl  of  Fingal  in  the  chair,  the  following  resolutions 
(drawn  up  by  Mr.  John  Byrne,  in  the  absence  of  Mr.  O'Connell, 
who  happened  at  the  time  to  be  actually  engaged  in  a  pending 
cause  of  considerable  importance  to  the  parties)  were  unani- 
mously adopted : — 


"That  being  impressed  with  an  unalterable  conviction  of  it8  being  the 
undoubted  right  of  every  man  to  worship  his  Creator  according  to  the 
genuine  dictates  of  his  own  conscience,  we  deem  it  our  duty,  publicly  and 
solemnly,  to  declare  our  decided  opinion  and  principle,  that  no  government 
can,  with  justice,  inflict  any  pains,  penalty,  or  privation  upon  any  man  for 
professing  that  form  of  Christian  faith  which  he,  in  his  conscience,  believes. 

"  That  we  shall,  therefore,  persevere  in  petitioning  the  legislature  for 
a  total  and  unqualified  repeal  of  the  penal  laws,  which  aggrieve  and  degrade 
the  Catholics  of  Ireland. 

' '  That  in  exercising  this  undoubted  right  by  petitioning,  we  shall  continue 
to  adhere  to  the  ancient  principles  of  the  constitution,  and  to  conform  also  to 
the  peculiar  restrictions  which,  by  modern  statutes,  are  imposed  on  the  people 
of  Ireland. 

"  That  a  committee  of  Catholics  be,  therefore,  appointed,  and  requested 
to  cause  proper  petitions  to  be  forthwith  framed  for  the  repeal  of  the  penal  laws, 
and  to  procure  signatures  thereto  in  all  parts  of  Ireland,  and  to  take  measures 
for  bringing  such  petitions  under  the  serious  consideration  of  the  legislature, 
within  the  first  month  of  the  ensuing  session  of  parliament. 

"  That  the  said  committee  do  consist  of  the  Catholic  peers  and  their  eldest 
sons,  the  Catholic  baronets,  the  prelates  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  Ireland, 
and  also  ten  persons  to  be  appointed  by  the  Catholics  in  each  coimty  in 
Ireland;   the  survivors  of  the  delegates  in  1793  to  constitute  an  integral  part 


116  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

of  that  number ;  and  also  of  five  persons  to  be  appointed  by  the  Catholic  inha- 
bitants of  each  parish  La  Dublin. 

"  That  the  appointment  of  the  said  persons  be  made  forthwith. 

"  That  it  be  recommended  to  such  committee  to  resort  to  all  local  and 
constitutional  means  of  maintaining  a  cordial  communication  of  sentiment  and 
co-operation  of  conduct  amongst  the  Catholics  of  Ireland,  and  generally  of 
promoting  the  favourable  reception  of  their  petition. 

"  That  imtil  the  new  committee  be  appointed,  the  management  of  Catholic 
affairs  shall  be  confided  to  the  Catholic  peers,  baronets,  and  survivors  of  the 
delegates  of  1793. 

"  That  the  sum  of  £oOO  be  offered  to  our  invalviable  secretary,  Mr.  Hay, 
as  a  small  tribute  of  CathoUc  gratitude. 

' '  That  the  sum  of  £oOO  be  collected  and  presented  to  "William  Todd  Jones, 
Esq.,  for  his  eminent  services  to  the  Catholics  of  Ireland. 

"  That  a  subscription  be  set  on  foot  for  the  relief  of  Mr.  Finnerty,  now  lying 
in  Lincoln  gaol. 

"  That  the  thanks  of  the  Catholics  of  Ireland  are  due,  and  are  hereby  given, 
to  the  Earl  of  Donoughmore  and  the  Right  Honourable  Henry  Grattan. 

' '  That  the  thanks  of  the  Catholics  of  Ireland  are  due,  and  are  hereby  given, 
to  the  Bishop  of  Norwich,  the  Marquis  of  Lansdowne,  the  Marquis  of  Dowa- 
shire,  the  Earl  of  Moira,  Lord  HoUand,  and  the  other  noble  lords  who  supported 
our  cause  in  the  House  of  Peers. 

"  That  the  thanks  of  the  CathoUcs  are  due.  and  are  hereby  given,  to  ilr. 
TVTiitehead,  Mr.  George  Ponsonby,  Sir  John  Newport,  Mr.  Hutchinson,  Mr. 
W.  Smith,  General  Mathew.  Mr".  Pamell,  Mr.  Tighe,  Mr.  Prittie,  and  the 
other  gentlemen  who  supported  our  petition  in  the  Hotise  of  Commons. 

"  That  the  thanks  of  the  Catholics  of  Ireland  be  given  to  JohnFinley,  Esq., 
for  his  splendid  exertions  in  the  cause  of  religious  liberty. 

"Flsgal,  Chairman. 
"  Captain  Bryan  in  the  chair. 
"Resolved — That  the  cordial  thanks  of  this  meeting  are  hereby  given  to  the 
Earl  of  Fingal,  for  his  poUte  and  dignified  conduct  in  the  chair. 

"Edward  Hay,  Secretary." 


Mr.  O'Connell,  who  arrived  but  a  very  short  time  before  the 
meeting  closed,  spoke  on  the  occasion  as  follows: — 

"  He  said  he  had  one  word  to  say,  and  only  one  word.  Labour- 
ing under  the  eifects  of  indisposition,  he  was  ill  able  to  speak  at 
length,  as  well  on  the  propriety  of  adopting  the  resolutions  proposed, 
as  on  the  necessity  of  the  meeting  preserving  unanimity.  In 
the  propriety  of  the  resolutions  he  concurred,  but  particulariy 
in  that  one  which  gives  to  the  people  the  free,  unbiassed,  and 
constitutional  right  of  re-electing  a  committee.  But  it  was  his  duty 
to  point  the  attention  of  the  aggregate  meeting  to  a  particular 
statute — the  statute  which  gave  rise  to  the  never-to-be-forgotten 
circular  letter  of  W.  "W.  Pole.     It  was  scarcely  necessary  to  say  that 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,  M.P.  117 

though  this  circular  letter  met  with  successful  opposition  from  a 
virtuous  and  incorruptible  portion  of  the  Catholic  body,  yet  the 
Convention  Act,  which  gave  birth  to  it,  still  exists.  He  was  a 
barrister — he  would  not  venture  to  say  he  was  a  lawyer ;  but  being 
a  barrister,  he  thought  it  right  to  apprize  his  countrymen  of  what  he 
conceived  to  be  the  true  construction  of  the  statute.  He  was  clearly 
of  opinion,  in  opposition  to  the  sentiments  of  our  law  officers  of  the 
crown,  and  to  their  joint  production,  well  termed  by  the  Chancellor 
of  England,  the  slovenly  letter  of  "W.  TV.  Pole,  that  there  was  no 
provision  in  that  act  which  went  the  length  of  preventing  any  class 
of  his  Majesty's  subjects  from  meeting  for  the  sole  purpose  of  pre- 
paring a  legitimate  petition  to  parliament.  However,  it  is  owing  to 
this  statute  that  the  Catholics  of  Ireland  did  incur  any  risk  in  adopt- 
ing the  present  resolution  ;  and  were  it  not  for  the  apprehension  of 
packed  juries  and  perjured  verdicts,  the  Catholics  had  nothing  to 
fear.  He  was  persuaded,  if  the  integrity  of  the  juries  and  judges 
could  be  relied  on,  and  he  felt  a  pride  in  saying  that  the  most,  if  not 
all  of  our  judges  were  pure  and  virtuous,  the  Catholics,  in  adopting 
the  resolution,  run  no  risk  of  transgressing  the  statute.  The  law  was 
on  the  side  of  the  people  ;  and  should  the  law  officers  of  the  crown, 
who,  in  the  course  of  to-morrow,  will  review  with  jaundiced  eyes 
our  proceedings — who  may  hear  of  his  sentiments  and  of  the  resolu- 
tions, before  he  had  done  speaking — should  they  have  the  temerity 
again  to  call  our  committee  an  illegal  assembly,  and  to  advise  prose' 
eutions,  at  the  suit  of  the  king,  against  his  faithful  Catholic  subjects, 
there  is  but  one  remedy,  and  that  is,  to  dutifully  submit.  And  again, 
should  there  be  no  change  in  his  Majesty's  health,  to  address  the 
Prince  Regent.  It  shall  never  be  said  of  the  Catholics  of  Ireland, 
that  they  entered  into  any  temporizing  measure,*or  mean  compromise, 
with  those  vested  with  'brief  authority'  on  this  side  the  water — 
those  underlings  of  Perceval,  '  who  call  us  slaves,  and  tell  us  'tis  our 
charter' — but  carry  our  grievances  to  the  foot  of  the  throne.  He 
thought  the  adoption  of  the  resolution  was  a  justifiable  experiment. 
He  considered  it  a  legal  experiment,  and  he  cheerfully  oftered  him- 
self as  the  first  victim  of  prosecution.  If  any  one  parish  in  the  city 
of  Dublin  would  do  him  the  honour  of  electing  him  to  represent  them 
in  the  Common  Council,  he  was  ready  to  give  in  bail,  and  let  the 
legal  question,  arising  on  the  construction  of  the  statute,  be  thus 
settled.  He  did  not  think  it  necessary,  nor  was  he  able  to  say  more 
on  this  subject.  He  then  paid  a  handsome  compliment  to  the  talents 
of  the  Protestant  barrister,  Mr.  Finlay,  for  the  very  eloquent  speech 


118  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

he  had  delivered.  He  said,  in  hearing  his  highly-esteemed  friend, 
he  had  felt  a  sensation  of  delight  which  before  he  had  seldom  expe- 
rienced. He  entirely  concurred  with  his  learned  friend,  in  eulogizing 
the  liberality  of  sentiment  of  the  several  Protestant  divines  alluded 
to ;  and,  in  addition  to  those  particularly  mentioned,  the  name  of  the 

Bishop  of  Norwich,  and  Rev. Knox.      But  he  hoped  there 

were  many  instances  of  a  cori-esponding  liberality  of  sentiment  to  be 
found  among  the  clergy  and  laity  professing  the  Catholic  religion. 
Of  the  latter  he  begged  leave  to  state  an  historical  fact,  recorded  in 
Marshal's  History  of  Washington.  The  different  States  of  America 
were  inhabited  by  persons  professing  different  religions ;  New 
England,  by  Puritans  ;  Pennsylvania,  by  Quakers,  &c.,  &c. ;  there 
being  but  one  province,  Maryland,  inhabited  by  Catholics.  The 
historical  fact  is  this — that  religious  persecution,  intolerance,  and 
exclusion  on  account  of  religion,  were  adopted  as  the  law  of  the  land 
in  all  the  States,  with  the  sole  exception  of  that  province  which  the 
Catholics  inhabited ;  and  to  their  immortal  honour,  they  subdued 
their  prejudices,  and  established  general  benevolence  and  unlimited 
toleration.  He  begged  pardon  for  having  so  long  trespassed — it  was 
not  his  intention  to  have  said  more  than  one  word." 

Against  several  of  the  gentlemen  who  attended  this  meeting, 
the  government  commenced  active  proceedings:  viz.,  against 
Messrs.  Edward  TaafFe,   Thomas  Kirwan,  Edward  Sheridan, 

John  Joseph  Burke,  John  Breen,  and  Scurlog.     They 

were  arrested  in  August,  under  the  warrant  of  Chief  Justice 
Downes,  against  whom  separate  actions  were  brought,  for  the 
arrest.  On  Wednesday,  the  20th  November,  the  writs  in  these 
actions — three  to  be  tried  in  the  Exchequer,  and  the  others 
in  the  Common  Pleas — were  served  upon  him  just  as  he  was 
stepping  into  his  carriage  to  go  to  the  Four  Courts. 

On  the  following  Thursday,  the  first  of  the  trials  of  those 
gentlemen  came  on.  Dr.  Sheridan  was  first  arraigned;  and, 
after  a  trial  of  two  days,  a  verdict  of  "  Not  Guilty"  gave  the 
Catholics  a  second  triumph  over  the  paltry  government  of  the 
day. 

The  government  determined  to  try  another  fall  with  its 
successful  opponents.  Before,  however,  stating  the  circum- 
stances, a  great  demonstration  of  Catholic  gratitude  to  their 
friends  is  to  be  recorded.     It  was  a  great  dinner  given  by  them 


DANIEL    O  CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P. 


119 


to  "the  Friends  of  Religious  Liberty,"  and  intended  as  a 
special  compliment  to  their  Protestant  friends  in  parliament 
and  other  high  places.  The  following  were  among  the  guests 
who  attended : — 


Hon.  James  Butler, 
Hon.  C.  H.  Hutchinson, 
Hon.  a.  Hutchinson, 
Sir  Marcus  Somerville, 
Sir  Neal  O'Donnell, 
Sir  Samuel  Bradstreet, 
Sir  John  Meredith, 
R.  Latouche,  M.P., 
John  Latouche,  M.P., 
H.  Parnell,  M.P.,  (late  Lord 

Congleton,) 
Colonel  Talbot,  M.P.,  (now 

Lord  Talbot,  de  Malahide,) 
Knight  of  Kerry,  M.P., 


Henry  Grattan, 

John  Philpot  Curran,  Master 

of  the  Rolls, 
Marquis  of  Downshire, 
Earl  of  Meath, 
Earl  of  Granard, 
Lord  Cloncurry, 
Lord  Rossmore, 
Lord  Dunsaney, 
Lord  Lismore, 
Lord  Arthur  Hill, 
Lord  Forbes, 
General  Mahon, 
General  Cockburn, 
Hon.  Major  Stanhope, 
Hon.  Mr.  Stanhope, 

(Sons  of  Lord  Harrington,) 

The  dinner  was  of  the  most  costly  description,  and  the  pro- 
ceedings at  it  full  of  cheering  hope  for  the  country.  During 
the  progress  of  the  long  list  of  toasts,  some  most  animated 
sentiments  of  patriotism  were  delivered  by  the  distinguished 
guests,  and  loudly  cheered ;  but  no  one  awoke  such  a  thunder- 
peal of  applause  as  did  Lord  Cloncurry,  when,  in  returning 
thanks  for  his  health,  he,  after  exhorting  the  Catholics  to  perse- 
vere in  looking  for  emancipation,  added — "  Perseverance,  too, 
will  accomplish  a  Repeal  of  that  infamous  measure,  the 
Union!  (unbounded  applause.)" 

Mr.  O'Connell's  speech  was  as  follows: — 

"  My  lord,  I  beg  leave  to  join  in  that  tribute  of  thanks  so  properly 
offered  by  my  honourable  friend  to  my  Lord  Lismore.  In  our 
humble  exertions  to  contribute  to  the  comfort  and  happiness  of  this 
meeting,  we  have  but  discharged  a  debt  due  to  such  illustrious  guests, 
for  favours  already  conferred  ;  and  I  am  sure  the  Catholics  of  Ire- 
land can  never  be  ungrateful  to  their  benefactors.  Who  are  they 
that  have  already  broken  many  a  link  of  our  galling  chain  ? — the 
Protestants  of  Ireland !  And  it  is  to  them  we  confidently  look  for 
the  dissolution  of  the  remaining  links.     The  noble  lords  who  have 


120  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

assembled  here  this  day,  will,  by  such  an  example,  assuredly  put  an 
end  to  those  unfortunate  feuds  which  have  so  long  disgraced  our 
country.  They  have  imposed  an  additional  debt  of  obligation  on  us. 
They  have  shown  their  determination  to  save  our  common  country, 
to  preserve  the  throne  of  the  most  revered  monarch  on  earth,  and  the 
best  constitution  in  the  world.  They  are  willing  to  arm  the  finest 
and  bravest  peasantry  in  existence,  in  defence  of  the  empire.  When 
I  look  around  me,  and  see  the  reverend  ministers  of  the  gospel,  and 
our  gallant  generals  flanking  them,  I  cannot  but  exclaim,  that  the 
empire  is  already  saved !  You  have,  my  Protestant  brothers,  an 
interest  in  the  hearts,  and  a  control  over  the  hands  of  one  million 
of  men,  as  brave  and  hardy  a  race  as  ever  the  world  saw  ;  let  the 
enemy  come  when  he  may,  your  liberality  wiU  recruit  a  mass  of 
unbought  millions.  I  have  the  honour  of  bearing  my  very  humble 
testimony  to  the  worth  of  our  noble  chairman,  who  has  been  ever 
upright  and  consistent.  The  life,  and  blood,  and  spirit  of  eveiy 
Catholic  in  Ireland  is  with  him.  Having  briefly  given  my  genuine 
sentiments,  I  wish  that  the  recollection  of  this  day  should  never  be 
erased  from  your  memories.  Nor  should  the  remembrance  of  our 
friends  present  be  ever  lost.  The  day,  the  persons,  and  the  occasion 
of  meeting  should  be  immortalized.  I  beg  pardon,  gentlemen,  for 
trespassing  on  you — and  shall  only  now  observe,  that  the  principle  of 
religious  liberty  having  been  so  often,  and  so  ably  defined,  it  is  unneces- 
sary for  me  to  say  one  word  on  the  subject.  I  would  scorn  emanci- 
pation if  it  were  to  injure  the  poorest  of  my  Protestant  countrymen. 
Let  any  man  prove  to  me  that  Catholic  emancipation  can  be  detri- 
mental to  the  meanest  member  of  the  Established  Church,  and  I  will 
cheerfully  consent  to  forego  it.  The  principle  which  has  given  aid 
to  Spain  and  Portugal  ought  to  be  extended  to  serve  Ireland.  That 
spirit  which  God  has  given  the  human  mind  cannot  be  extinguished 
by  human  efforts ;  and  for  man  to  interfere  with  it,  is  a  flagrant  act 
of  impiety." 

The  next  step  of  the  government  will  speak  for  itself.  The 
following  is  the  account  in  the  Freeman;  from  its  great  interest 
we  extract  it  entire : — 

"  "We  have  this  day  a  most  painful  and  disheartening  duty  to  per- 
form. We  did  hope,  after  the  acquittal  of  Dr.  Sheridan,  after  the 
constitutional  and  moderate  conduct  of  the  Catholics,  we  did  hope  that 
the  administration  would  have  imitated  that  forbearance — that  they 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  121 

would  have  suffered  the  Catholics  of  Ireland  quietly  to  petition  for  a 
redress  of  grievances.  This  the  administration  have  not  thought 
proper  to  do.  Theke  will  be  no  petition  to  parliament. 
But  we  feel  no  disposition  at  present  to  animadvert  upon  the  conduct 
of  the  Irish  cabinet.  We  shall  content  ourselves,  at  present,  by  giving 
a  naked  and  correct  narrative  of  this  day's  transactions — a  day  which 
will  be  long  remembered  in  the  annals  of  Ireland. 

"  A  few  minutes  before  twelve  o'clock,  yesterday.  Counsellor  Hare, 
a  police  magistrate,  entered  the  theatre,  Fishamble-street,  where  the 
Catholic  committee  were  assembled,  and  took  his  station  beside  the 
chair,  which  was  prepared  for  the  reception  of  Lord  Fingal. 

"  At  two  minutes  after  twelve  his  lordship  arrived ;  and,  upon 
the  motion  of  Counsellor  Hussey,  seconded  by  Counsellor  O'Connell, 
he  was  called  to  the  chair. 

"  Mr.  Hare  was  about  to  address  Lord  Fingal,  when  Lord  Netter- 
ville  stood  up,  and  moved  that  the  Catholic  petition  be  now  read, 
which  was  seconded  by  Counsellor  O' Gorman. 

"  Mr.  Hare  now  addressed  himself  to  Lord  Fingal,  evidently  with 
a  determination  to  prevent  the  reading  of  the  petition,  and  persevered 
until  he  had  accomplished  this  object. 

"  Mr.  Hare — My  Lord  Fingal,  I  beg  to  state  what  my  object  is 
in  coming  to  this  meeting.  As  chairman  of  this  meeting,  I  have  to 
inform  you,  that  I  come  here,  as  a  magistrate  of  the  city  of  Dublin, 
by  directions  of  the  Lord  Lieutenant  (his  excellency  having  been 
informed  that  this  is  a  meeting  of  the  Catholic  committee — composed 
of  the  peers,  prelates,  country  gentlemen,  and  the  persons  chosen  in 
the  different  parishes  of  Dublin).  I  beg  to  ask  you,  as  chairman  of 
this  meeting,  if  that  be  the  case,  and  what  is  your  object  ? 

"  Lord  Fingal. — Sir,  we  have  met  here  for  a  legal  and  constitu- 
tional purpose. 

"  Mr.  Hare. — Allow  me  to  observe,  that  that  is  not  an  answer  to 
my  question  ; — perhaps  you  did  not  distinctly  hear  me.  I  ask,  is  it 
a  meeting  of  the  Catholic  committee,  composed  of  the  peers,  prelates, 
country  gentlemen,  and  others  in  the  city  of  Dublin  ? 

"  Lord  Fingal — ^I  certainly  do  not  feel  myself  bound  to  give  you 
any  other  answer.  We  are  met  for  the  sole  legal  and  constitutional 
purpose  of  petitioning. 

Mr.  Hare. — My  lord,  I  ask  you,  as  chairman  of  this  meeting,  in 
what  capacity  are  you  met  ? 

"Lord  Fingal — We  are  met  for  the  purpose  of  petitionino- 
parliament. 


122  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

"  Mr.  Hare My  lord,  that  is  not  an  answer  to  my  question.     I 

speak  deliberately  and  distinctly,  in  order  that  every  person  may 
hear  and  understand  me.  (Here  some  little  confusion  occurred, 
owing  to  several  persons  speaking  together.)  Mr.  Hare. — I  hope  I 
have  leave  to  speak  (hear,  hear  the  magistrate,  from  several  persons). 
I  beg  leave  to  ask  your  lordship  again,  is  it  a  meeting  of  the  Catholic 
committee,  constituted  by  the  Catholic  peers,  prelates,  country 
gentlemen,  and  the  persons  appointed  in  the  different  parishes  of 
Dublin  ? 

"  Lord  Fingal. — I  am  not  aware  that  I  can  give  you  any  other 
answer  than  that  which  I  have  already  given. 

"  Mr.  Hare Then,  my  lord,  your   answer  is,   that  you  are  a 

meeting  of  Catholics,  assembled  for  a  legal  and  constitutional 
purpose. 

"  From  several  voices — No,  no ;  there  was  no  answer  given  in 
such  terms. 

*'  Counsellor  O'Connell. — It  is  a  most  unusual  thing  for  any  magis- 
trate to  come  into  a  public  meeting  to  catechise,  ask  questions,  and 
put  his  own  construction  upon  the  answers. 

"Mr.  Hare. — My  lord,  am  I  to  understand  that  you  decline 
answering  me  fully,  what  meeting  you  are,  and  the  purpose  of  your 
meeting  ? 

"  Lord  Fingal. — We  are  met  for  a  legal  and  constitutional 
purpose. 

"  Mr.  Hare. — I  wish  to  be  distinctly  understood  :  I  have  addressed 
your  lordship  explicitly  two  or  three  times.  Am  I  to  understand 
that  you  will  give  no  other  answer  to  my  question  ?  Do  you  give 
no  other  answer  ?  (Here  some  confusion  arose,  in  consequence  of 
several  persons  speaking  together — some  crying  out  to  have  the 
petition  read — others  calling  on  Mr.  Hay — and  others  requiring 
silence,  for  the  purpose  of  hearing  Counsellor  Hare.) 

"Mr.  Hare. — My  Lord  Fingal,  I  addressed  myself  to  you  so 
distinctly,  that  T  thought  my  question  could  not  be  mistaken.  I 
consider  your  declining  to  give  me  a  direct  answer,  as  an  admission 
that  this  is  the  committee  of  the  Catholics  of  Ireland. 

"  Counsellor  O'Connell. — I  beg  leave  to  say,  that  as  what  passes 
here  may  be  given  in  evidence,  the  magistrate  has  received  a  distinct 
answer  to  his  question  ;  and  it  is  not  for  him  to  distort  any  answer 
he  has  received  into  a  meaning  of  his  own — he  is  to  take  words  in 
their  literal  signification. 

"  Mr.  Hare My  lord,  I  consider  your  refusing  to  give  any  other 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,  M.P.  123 

answer   as   an   admission   of  the   fact  of  this   being   the  Catholic 
committee. 

"  Counsellor  O'Connell — Sir,  if  you  please  to  tell  gentlemen  such 
is  your  belief,  it  is  of  no  consequence  to  us  :  we  are  not  to  be  bound 
by  your  opinion. 

"  Mr.  Hare. — This  is  an  admission  of  the  fact,  that  this  is  the 
Catholic  committee  ;  and  I  consider  your  lordship's  refusal — 

"  (Here  the  meeting  was  interrupted  by  the  confusion  incidental 
to  a  number  of  persons  speaking  together.) 

"Mr.  Hare — Does  your  lordship  deny  that  this  is  the  Catholic 
committee  ? 

"  Counsellor  Finn — No,  no :  my  Lord  Fingal  has  not  given  you 
either  admission  or  denial. 

"  Counsellor  O'Connell. — We  do  not  want  the  gentleman's  assis- 
tance to  make  out  meanings  for  us.  Let  him  not  imagine  that  the 
character  of  this  meeting  can  be  aifected,  or  that  he  can  bind  this 
meeting  by  any  assertion  he  thinks  proper  to  make. 

"  Mr.  Hare. — Then  I  repeat  that  your  lordship's  refusal  to  give 
me  a  direct  answer,  is  an  admission  that  this  meeting  is  the  Catholic 
committee,  and,  as  such,  it  is  an  unlawful  assembly. 

"  Counsellor  O'Connell Mr.  Hare  is  now  speaking  in  his  magis- 
terial capacity,  therefore,  whatever  he  says  give  it  attention. 

"  Mr.  Hare — My  lord,  I  say  that  this  is  an  unlawful  assembly, 
and,  as  such,  I  require  it  to  disperse.  I  beg  leave  to  say,  that  it  is 
my  wish  to  discharge  my  duty  in  as  mild  a  manner  as  possible.  I 
hope  that  no  resistance  will  be  offered,  and  that  I  need  not  have 
recourse  to  those  means  with  which  I  am  entrusted  for  the  purpose 
of  causing  the  meeting  to  disperse. 

''  Lord  Fingal. — It  is  not  our  intention  to  do  anything  improper, 
or  to  act  in  resistance  to  the  laws  of  the  land  ;  but  it  is  my  determi- 
nation not  to  leave  the  chair  until  I  am  obliged  by  some  person  to  do 
so,  in  order  that  I  may  bring  my  legal  action  against  the  person  who 
shall  remove  me. 

"  Mr.  Hare — My  lord,  I  shall  remove  you  out  of  the  chair  ;  and, 
in  doing  so,  it  will  be  an  actual  ari-est. 

"  Here,  as  might  be  naturally  expected,  some  confusion  arose,  in 
consequence  of  a  noise  in  the  gallery,  which,  we  are  infoi*med,  was 
occasioned  by  police  constables. 

"  Mr.  Hare. — My  lord,  if  you'll  have  the  goodness  to  leave  the 
chair,  that  is  a  legal  arrest. 

"  He  then  took  Lord  Fingal  by  the  arm  and  gently  pushed  him 
from  the  chair. 


124  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

"  On  the  motion  of  Counsellor  O'Gorman,  seconded  by  Dr.  Luby, 
Lord  Netterville  was  immediately  called  to  the  chair,  from  which  he 
was  removed  by  Counsellor  Hare,  in  the  same  way  that  he  had  put 
Lord  Fingal  out  of  it. 

"  There  was  then  an  universal  cry  for  Lord  Ffrench  to  take  the 
chair.  His  lordship,  who  was  in  a  bad  state  of  health,  either  had  not 
arrived,  or  was  not  within  hearing  of  those  who  called  him  to  the 
chair. 

"  The  Hon.  Mr.  Barnwall  was  then  called  to  the  chair ;  but 
before  he  had  taken  it,  Lord  Ffrench  had  arrived,  and  was  proceed- 
ing to  his  post,  when,  at  the  recommendation  of  Sir  Edward  Bellew, 
and  at  half-past  twelve  o'clock,  the  meeting  dispersed. 

"  After  the  Catholic  meeting  had  been  dispersed  in  Fishamble- 
street,  a  number  of  gentlemen  repaired  to  Mr.  D'Arcy's,  the  Crown 
and  Anchor  Tavern,  Earl-street,  for  the  purpose  of  signing  a  requi- 
sition to  call  an  aggregate  meeting  of  the  Catholics  of  Ireland. 
While  the  requisition  was  preparing,  Counsellor  Hare,  accompanied 
by  Alderman  Darley,  went  into  the  room  where  they  were  assembled, 
and  asked  whether  that  meeting  was  a  meeting  of  individual  gentle- 
men. Being  answered  in  the  affirmative,  and  being  about  to  make  a 
speech,  Lord  Ffrench  told  him  they  did  not  want  to  hear  any  of  his 
speeches,  nor  would  they  listen  to  them ;  if  he  came  there  for  the 
purpose  of  acting,  that  he  must  proceed  without  delay. 

"  Mr.  Hare  said  that  he  merely  wished  to  say,  "that  as  they  had 
acknowledged  themselves  to  be  a  meeting  of  individual  gentlemen,  he 
would  not  molest  them." 


"  A  Catholic  requisition,  for  an  aggregate  meeting,  to  be  held  on 
Thursday  next,  at  the  Theatre,  Fishamble-street,  has  been  drawn  up 
and  signed  by  upwards  of  three  hundred  persons. 

"  We  have  just  learned  that  Lord  Fingal  interrogated  the  police 
magistrates,  after  the  dispersion  of  the  committee,  if  he  was  to  pro- 
cure bail  to  their  arrest,  and  that  they  deny  having  arrested  him  !" 


"  We  should  not  have  said  more  on  this  subject,  but  for  the  scan- 
dalous misrepresentations  which  appeared  last  night  in  a  print, 
avowedly  imder  the  orders,   and  in  the  pay  of  government.     The 


DANIEL    O'CONNBLL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  125 

whole  detail  in  that  print  is  evidently  morbid :  we  shall  not  animad- 
vert upon  the  minute  Jihs  told  in  the  course  of  this  report,  or  upon 
the  gross  partiality  it  manifests.  Want  of  candour  and  want  of  truth 
are  the  characteristics  of  the  advocates  of  the  Irish  cabinet :  but 
when  an  abandoned  falsehood  is  advanced  in  this  demi-official  organ, 
we  feel  it  our  duty  instantly  to  repel  the  slander.  The  Patriot 
asserts,  that  Lord  Fingal  acknowledged  himself  as  submitting  to  the 
law,  implying,  of  course,  that  the  magistrate  was  legally  justified  in 
acting  as  he  was  commanded.  Lord  Fingal  neither  said  nor  meant 
any  such  thing — submitting  to  the  arrest,  to  force — nor  did  he  leave 
the  chair,  until  compelled  to  do  so — but  what  demonstrates  more  than 
words  the  spirit  with  which  Lord  Fingal,  as  well  as  that  other 
excellent  nobleman.  Lord  Netterville,  acted,  is  the  fact,  that  both 
mean  to  '  bring  their  actions  against  Mr.  Hare  for  a  false  arrest.' 

"  We  do  not  wish  to  hurt  our  feelings  upon  this  subject  any  further 
this  day." 


"  At  a  meeting  of  Catholics,  held  at  the  Crown  and  Anchor,  in 

Earl-street,  on  Monday,  the  23d  December,  1811,  George  Bryan, 

Esq.,  in  the  chair, 

"Resolved — '  That  a  meeting  of  the  Catholics  of  Ireland  be  called  for  Thurs- 
day, the  26th  instant,  and  that  we  do  now  proceed  to  aflix  our  signatures  to  a 
requisition  for  the  purpose.' 

"Resolved — 'That  our  cordial  thanks  are  justly  due,  and  hereby  returned, 
to  our  Protestant  brethren  who  have  this  day  attended  our  meetings ;  but 
particularly  so  to  the  Viscount  Lismore,  Hamilton  Rowan,  John  Pratt  Winter, 
and  Edward  Ruthven,  Esqrs.' 

"  Resolved — '  That  a  committee  of  twenty-one  be  appointed  to  arrange  the 
business  to  be  submitted  on  Thursday  next  to  the  aggregate  meeting,  of  wliich 
Lord  Fingal  is  to  be  the  chairman.' 

"George  Bryan,  Chairman. 
"  Edward  Hay,  Secretary. 

"  The  Hon.  Thomas  Barnwell  in  the  chair. 

"  Resolved — '  That  the  thanks  of  this  meeting  are  hereby  returned  to  George 
Bryan,  Esq.,  for  his  manly  and  spirited  behaviour  in  the  chair.' 

' '  Resolved — '  That  the  thanks  of  the  Catholic  body  on  all  occasions  are  due 
to  the  Earl  of  Fingal ;  and  more  especially  for  his  firm,  dignified,  and  manly 
conduct  this  day,' 

"Resolved — 'That  the  Viscount  Netterville  is,  by  his  spirited  attendance 
this  day,  justly  entitled  to  our  thanks.' 

"  Resolved — '  That  the  thanks  of  tliis  meeting  be  returned  to  Lord  Ffrench, 
for  his  spirited  and  dignified  resistance  to  inquisitorial  proceedings.' 

"  Thomas  Barn  wall,  Chairman. 
"  Edward  Hay,  Secretary. 


126 


MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 


"  We,  the  undersigned,  request  a  meeting  of  the  Catholics  of  Ireland  at  ten 
o'clock  on  Thursday,  the  26th  of  December,  1811,  at  the  Theatre  in  Fishamble- 
street,  to  take  into  consideration  the  propriety  of  presenting  an  humble  and 
dutiful  address  or  petition  to  his  Royal  Highness  the  Prince  Regent,  on  the 
present  situation  of  Catholic  affairs  : — 


Fingal, 

Netterville, 

Ffrench, 

Thomas  Barnwall,  Trimblestown, 

Charles  Ffrench,  Castle-Ffrench, 

Edward  Bellew,  Bart.,  Baroneath, 

Hugh  O'Reilly,  Bart.,  county  Westmeath, 

George  Bryan,  Jenkinstown, 

Owen  O'Connor,  Belagar, 

Wm.  G.  Bagot,  Castle-Bagot, 

James  Nangle,  Kildalkey, 

John  Lalor,  Cranagh, 

Daniel  O'Connell, 

Edward  James  Beytagh, 

P.  B.  Hussey,  Gloucester-street, 

Michael  Arthur,  Limerick, 

Ambrose  Cox,  Clara  House, 

Peter  Ryan,  Danganmore, 

Edward  Cox,  Clara  House, 

J.  Cusack,  R.  Castle, 

Robert  Fyan,  Dublin, 

Denis  Cassin,  Gore's-bridge, 

James  Cox,  Dublin, 

James  Lalor,  Mount  Brilliant, 

Thomas  E.  Lalor,  Cregg, 

Thomas  Dromgole,  M.D.,  Dublin, 

William  F.  Finn,  Carlow, 

Thomas  O'Beirne,  Leitrim, 

P.  O.  Plunkett,  King's  County, 

Francis  Hughes,  Dublin, 

David  Lynch,  Dublin, 

Danel  Flattery,  King's  County, 

J.  D.  Doyle,  Dublin, 

Mathew  O'Reilly,  Thomastown, 

John  Luby,  M.D.,  Dublin, 

Christopher  Taaffe,  Rookwood, 

J.  Burke,  M.D.,  Dublin, 

Philip  Rorke,  county  Westmeath, 

C.  R.  Christian,  Rathfriland, 
James  Byrne,  Kilkenny, 
Christopher  Kelly,  Dublin, 
Bernard  Coyle,  Dublin, 

D.  W.  O'Reilly,  Kildangan  Castle, 
George  Harkan,  Crite,  county  Roscommon, 
John  Browne,  Dublin, 

Nicholas  P.  O'Gorman,  Harcourt-place, 

C.  MacLoughlin,  Usher's  island 

James  M'Guckin,  Antrim, 

William  Havron,   do., 

James  Bowden,  county  Down, 

Andrew  Jennings,      do., 

John  O'Hagan,  county  Down, 

Luke  Harkan  Raheen, 

Bernard  Plunkett,  Elphin, 

William  Kelly,  Strokestown, 

Matthew  Russell, 

Christopher  Taylor,  Swords, 

John  Hagan, 

Joseph  Ferrall,  Longford, 

Daniel  Ferrall,  Beech-wood, 

Pat.  Macmanus,  Dublin, 

Richard  Power,  county  Waterford, 

John  Mansfield,  county  Waterford, 

Pat.  Dowell,  county  Cavan, 

Francis  Magan,  Dublin, 


James  Taaffe,  Dublin, 

Sylvester  Costigan,  Thomas-street, 

Laurence  Byrne,  Wicklow, 

John  Lawless,  Fermanagh, 

Richard  O'Gorman,  Dublin, 

George  Lynch,  county  Cavan, 

Ambrose  Moore,  Dublin, 

John  Rooney,  Dublin, 

John  Shiel,  Westmeath, 

P.  J.  Maguire,  county  Armagh, 

Anthony  Dwyer,  county  Tipperary, 

James  "Tegart,  Tanderagee, 

John  Dunne,  Ballinakill, 

Daniel  Ryan,  Inch  House, 

P.  Smith,  Snugboro', 

P.  O'Brien  Butler,  Dunboyne  Castle, 

M.  O'F.  Caddell,  Harbourtown, 

Joseph  Cruise,  Longford, 

Daniel  O'Reilly,  county  Monaghan, 

James  M'Kenna,  Monaghan, 

Christopher  O'Reilly.  Anaville, 

John  Rorke,  Finnistown, 

Thomas  Fitz-Gerald,  county  Kildare, 

Joseph  Barnwall,  county  Meath, 

J.  Everard,  county  Sligo, 

Martin  Madden,  county  Sligo, 

John  Plunkett,  Usher's-quay, 

A.  R.  Martin,  Henry-street, 

T.  F.  Madelen,  Galway, 

Philip  Langan,  Dublin, 

John  Barrett, 

J.  K.  Maddin,  Dublin, 

P.  Burke.  Leinster  Hotel, 

John  Fallon, 

Edward  French,  French-park, 

John  Rowley,  jun.,  Limerick, 

Michael  O'Loughlan,  Dublin, 

George  Keogh,  Dublin, 

Michael  M'Carthy,  Cork, 

Patrick  Finn,  Carlow, 

J.  Markey,  Louth, 

Ambrose  Markey,  do., 

Edward  O'Halloran,  Dublin, 

Peter  Flatter,  do., 

John  Browne,  do., 

Mark  Devlin,  county  Down, 

Arthur  Fegan,  county  Down, 

John  Keating,  Dublin, 

John  Cormick,  do., 

Lewis  Lyons,  do., 

M.  J.  Kelly,  Duke-street, 

Joseph  Farrell, 

William  Jones,  Rossbreever, 

Michael  Mahon,  Dublin, 

Edward  Smith,  Callan, 

Thomas  Naghton,  Rastello, 

James  Meyler,  county  Wexford, 

W.  Keerney,  Dublin, 

John  Burke,  Waterford, 

Charles  Mac  Caraley,  Newry, 

John  Andoe,  Dublin, 

Richard  O'Brien,  Dublin, 

John  Glynn,  do., 

Rowland  Savage,  county  Down." 


At  the  meeting  thus  determined  upon,  and  which  took  place 
on  Thursday,  December  26,  at  the  Fishamble-street  Theatre — 
Lord    Fingal   in   the  chair — the  Catholics   re-appointed  their 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  127 

general  committee.  Several  Protestants  attended;  and  the 
proceedings  were  of  the  most  interesting  and  decided  character. 
At  this  meeting,  Mr.  O'Connell  delivered  the  following  speech : 

"  He  said  he  was  conscious  that  he  was  inadequate  to  do  justice  to 
the  occasion  on  which  the  present  assembly  had  been  called  together, 
and  to  the  circumstances  which  had  taken  place  when  they  were 
before  met.  Whatever  warmth,  and  he  thanked  them  for  their 
warmth,  had  appeared  in  the  sentiments  of  the  Protestants  who  had 
honoured  their  Catholic  brethren  with  their  presence,  he  trusted  that 
nothing  but  the  calmest  moderation  would  be  witnessed  in  the 
Catholics  themselves,  such  as  had  been  given  them  in  example  by 
their  noble  chairman,  when  insulted  by  the  improper  intei'ference  of 
the  magistrate.  He  was  grateful  to  the  Protestant  gentlemen  for 
their  presence  and  assistance  ;  and  he  could  not  help  thinking,  that 
though  they  were  at  present  the  favoured  party,  the  cause  equally 
concerned  the  whole ;  the  liberty  of  the  Protestants  could  not  be 
secure,  if  that  of  the  Catholics  were  invaded  or  limited.  He  trusted 
that  the  proceedings  of  all  would  be  cool  and  firm ;  tempered  with 
prudence,  yet  conducted  with  the  most  undeviating  resolution.  The 
circumstances  which  had  taken  place  on  the  23rd,  were  of  the  most 
afflicting  nature  to  the  whole  Catholic  body.  He  rejoiced,  however, 
in  the  manner  in  which  they  had  been  conducted  on  the  part  of  the 
meeting  and  its  chairman.  Everything  had  been  in  obedience,  even 
to  the  colour  of  law ;  the  proceedings  of  the  magistracy  had  carried 
the  law  beyond  its  legal  boundary.  Every  magistrate,  upon  learning 
that  there  was  an  assemblage  of  people  collected  together,  certainly 
had  a  right  to  ask  whether  that  meeting  was  assembled  for  a  legal 
purpose,  or  the  contrary  ;  but  he  had  no  authority  to  catechise  them 
further ;  h«^  must  act  upon  the  answer  he  receives.  It  was,  there- 
fore, a  matter  of  the  greatest  satisfaction  that  Lord  Fingal,  by  his 
firm  and  prudent  conduct,  in  replying  to  the  interrogatory  of  Mr. 
Hare,  had  afforded  no  precedent  upon  which  such  a  practice  might 
afterwards  be  continued.  Every  assembly  had  the  example  of  his 
lordship  now  before  them,  and  such  a  precedent,  he  trusted,  would, 
in  its  consequences,  be  a  protection  against  the  vexatious  interroga- 
tories of  ignorance  and  presumption — of  those  who  might  be  placed 
in  the  office  of  magistrates.  With  regard  to  what  had  been  said  by 
one  gentleman  a  little  before  (Mr.  M'Nally),  he  could  not  assent. 
The  action  of  Mr.  Hare  was  merely  his  own,  as  a  magistrate,  and 
the  Lord  Lieutenant  had  no  concern  in  being  responsible  for  it ;  and 


128  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

he  (Mr.  O'Connell)  would  not  allow  in  that  assembly  anything  to  be 
laid  to  the  charge  of  the  Duke  of  Richmond,  for  which  his  Grace 
was  not  in  every  respect  accountable.  It  had  been  most  openly  insi- 
nuated, that  the  conduct  of  the  Catholics,  in  changing  the  nature  of 
their  meeting  from  a  committee  to  an  aggregate  meeting,  was  a  plain 
shrinking  from  the  ground  on  which  they  had  before  stood — a  confes- 
sion, it  was  assumed,  that  their  former  manner  of  proceeding  was  to 
their  own  knowledge  illegal.  But  it  was  not  the  Catholics  that  had 
shrunk  from  their  ground,  nor  from  trying  the  question  ;  it  was  the 
Irish  government  that  had  shrunk  from  it.  For  what  was  the  real 
question  ?  It  was  not,  was  the  constituting  of  an  assembly  to  repre- 
sent the  people  an  illegal  proceeding  ?  for  this  had  never  been  the 
design  nor  the  wish  of  the  Catholics ;  their  committee  had  no  preten- 
sions whatever  to  represent  the  people  nor  any  part  of  them  ;  it  was 
constituted  merely  to  prepare  and  present  a  petition  for  a  redress  of 
grievances — solely  to  transact  a  particular  business  entrusted  to  its 
care.  The  Catholics  would  never  think  of  creating  a  committee  of 
representatives,  who  should  legislate  for  them,  and  by  whose  actions 
they  were  to  be  bound,  even  were  that  strictly  legal :  for  how  could 
they  rest  assured  that  such  a  committee  would  not  swerve  from  its 
integrity,  and  betray  the  trust  reposed  in  it?  in  which  case,  the  whole 
of  the  Catholic  body,  bound  by  its  own  act  to  these  men,  would 
necessarily  follow  the  fate  which  they  had  allotted  it.  The  right  of 
representation  was  not  at  all  contended  for :  the  right  of  petition 
was  that  for  which  the  Catholics  had  always  insisted ;  and  they  did 
not  now  shrink  from  a  trial  of  its  legality.  But  it  was  the  crown 
lawyers  who  had  shrunk  from  it.  He  well  knew  that  much  labour 
had  been  bestowed  in  order  to  frame  an  indictment,  which  should 
seem  to  try  the  question,  but  which,  in  reality,  should  not  try  it. 
They  imagined,  if  it  was  in  any  shape  allowed  to  go  to  a  jury,  there 
was  no  doubt  of  their  success.  But  he  thanked  God  that  now 
there  was  an  opportunity  of  bringing  them  to  the  point :  the  late 
proceedings  of  the  government  should  immediately  be  brought  for- 
ward, as  the  subject  of  action,  in  the  Court  of  Exchequer;  to- 
morrow's sun  should  not  set  before  it  should  appear  upon  record.  It 
should  be  brought  in  two  shapes — one  an  action  for  false  imprison- 
ment, the  other  a  special  action  upon  the  case ;  in  the  last  of  which 
the  Earl  of  Fingal  and  Lord  Netterville  should  be  declared  to  have 
been  arrested  at  the  head  of  a  committee,  met  for  the  purpose  of  pre- 
paring and  presenting  a  petition  to  parliament,  and  is  one  of  the 
resolutions  of  which  there  was  an  express  averment,  that  those  who 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  129 

constituted  it  were  no  representatives.  He  was  satisfied  that  here 
no  mode  could  be  aftbrded  of  escaping  from  the  true  point  to  be 
argued.  Mr.  O'Connell  then  proceeded  to  some  remarks  upon  the 
manner  in  which  the  late  trial  had  been  conducted  ;  and  expressed 
his  dissatisfaction  with  some  part  of  it.  He  afterwards  went  on  to 
say  that  only  to  persevere  was  requisite — a  firm  and  temperate  reso- 
lution was  alone  necessary  to  make  the  cause  ultimately  successful. 
The  nation  had  long  felt  the  justness  of  the  Prince  Regent's  thoughts 
on  the  subject  of  Emancipation.  He  had  expressed  a  decided  attach- 
ment to  their  cause,  as  long  as  it  was  proper  for  him  to  give  expres- 
sion to  the  sentiment  of  his  own  heart,  when  they  were  different  from 
those  of  his  father's  ministers :  no  reason  had  been  since  afforded  to 
give  cause  for  supposing  he  had  altered  his  opinion,  the  only  occasion 
on  which  he  had  officially  given  his  own  sentiments  ;  they  had  been 
decidedly  hostile  to  Mr.  Percival,  the  most  formidable  of  the  ministers 
whom  the  Catholics  had  to  oppose ;  and  the  Prince  had  declared  that 
it  was  only  in  obedience  to  the  wishes  of  his  father,  that  that  minister 
was  retained  in  his  situation.  After  a  few  more  observations  on  the 
justice  and  the  approaching  success  of  the  cause,  Mr.  O'Connell  sat 
down  amidst  the  applauses  of  the  assembly." 

The  year  1812  commenced  with  an  active  agitation.  County 
meetings  of  the  Catholics  were  held,  to  protest  against  the 
dispersion  of  the  Catholic  Committee  in  December  of  the  pre- 
ceding year,  and  against  the  general  tendency  of  the  acts  of  the 
government  to  violate  the  constitution. 

Special  reference  was  also  made  in  the  resolution  passed  at 
those  meetings,  to  the  restrictions  that  yet  subsisted  on  the  powers 
of  the  Prince  of  Wales  as  Regent ;  and  there  was  an  expression 
of  hope  that  on  the  then  approaching  expiration  of  those 
restrictions,  the  Catholics  would  obtain  "  a  redress  of  those 
grievances  that  would  have  tended,  as  the  resolution  said,  'to 
alienate  their  affections,  were  the  latter  not  so  strongly  cemented 
to  the  interests  of  the  throne,  by  an  unbroken  series  of  loyalty 
and  allegiance.' " 

The  Catholics — if  indeed  they  were  still  under  the  delusion 
of  these  fond  hopes  from  the  Prince's  good-will — were  very  soon 
to  be  bitterly  and  entirely  undeceived. 

Whatever   their   real    belief  may    have   been,   it  was   their 

K 


130  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

obvious  policy  not  to  betray  any  suspicion,  even  were  such 
entertained,  and  accordingly  the  tone  assumed,  in  alluding-  to 
hira,  was  of  high  confidence. 

But  there  was  another  feeling  on  a  different  and  larger 
subject  that  also  marked  several  of  these  assemblies.  The 
Union,  its  evils,  and  degrading  and  ruinous  effect  upon  the 
country,  and  the  strong  necessity  for  its  repeal.  These  were 
also  topics  of  debate  ably  dwelt  upon  by  several  speakers,  but 
by  none  more  so  than  by  Mr.  Howley,  the  present  third 
sergeant  at  law,  and  assistant  barrister  for  the  south. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Catholics  of  the  city  and  county  of 
Limerick,  held  at  the  Commercial  Buildings  in  that  city,  on 
Monday,  6th  January,  1812,  he  thus  expressed  himself: — 

"  The  occurrences  of  the  present  day  strongly 

recall  to  my  mind  a  former  period  of  Ireland's  misfortune  ;  and  that 
grave  of  Irish  prosperity,  the  Legislative  Union,  gapes  before  my 
eyes  with  all  its  sepulchral  horrors !  (great  applause.) 

"  It  is  a  circumstance,  well  known  to  every  reflecting  mind,  that 
the  unhappy  dissensions,  which  rent  this  country  asunder,  might  have 
been  suppressed,  at  the  beginning,  did  not  that  statesman,  called 
'  the  great  man,  now  no  more,'  think  them  essentially  necessary  to 
bring  about  his  favourite  political  project,  the  union  of  both 
countries. 

"He  watched  the  evil  in  its  progress  and  maturity,  and  when  the 
malignant  poison  of  disaffection  had  mixed  with  the  blood  of  the  people, 
he  awoke,  as  it  were,  from  a  dream,  and  was  alive  to  all  the  horrors  of 
the  disease  (applause).  It  then  became  necessary  to  have  resort 
to  strong  and  desperate  measures;  and  before  the  country  had 
recovered  from  the  shock  of  civil  animosities,  while  the  sorrows  of 
the  past  had  fixed  the  mind,  and  rendered  it  careless  for  the 
future,  the  Union  was  proposed,  and  the  Union  was  carried !" 

This  outburst  against  the  grand  source  of  Irish  evils,  was 
received,  as  the  newspaper  report  says,  "  with  repeated  and 
unceasing  applause."  We  notice  it  here  as  one  of  the  strong 
indications  constantly  recurring  ever  since  the  Union  was  car- 
ried, of  the  enduring  and  unabating  hostility  in  the  Irish  popular 
mind,  to  that  nefarious  and  execrable  measure. 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.V.  131 

An  amusing,  and  yet  pitiable  instance  of  the  degradation  into 
which  party  feeling  and  religious  bigotry  are  apt  to  hurry  those 
who  give  them  indulgence,  is  to  be  found  in  the  gross  attacks  of 
of  the  tory  press  about  this  time,  on  the  Duke  of  Clarence,  (the 
late  king,)  for  what  was  to  them  an  unpardonable  offence — 
namely,  his  very  proper  and  high-minded  conduct,  in  refusing  to 
drink  the  Orange  Shibboleth,  "  the  glorious,  pious,  and  immor- 
tal memory" — when  proposed,  in  his  presence,  by  a  brutal 
Orange  officer  of  an  Irish  militia  regiment,  at  a  garrison 
dinner.  The  Duke  of  Clarence  aggravated  his  crime  in  the 
eyes  of  the  bigots  of  high  and  low  station,  by  giving  a  prompt 
and  very  severe  reprimand  to  the  wretched  creature  who  pro- 
posed the  toast. 

In  this  month  (January),  a  kind  of  embryo  plot  was  disco- 
vered, nominally  against  the  government,  but  really,  (like  the 
police  plots  of  the  present  day,)  against  the  popular  leaders  and 
their  agitation  : — A  drunken  schoolmaster  of  a  Catholic  charity 
school,  in  excusing  himself,  while  drunk,  to  his  employers,  for 
absence  and  other  breaches  of  duty,  declared  that  he  had  duties 
elsewhere  that  had  detained  him — that  he  was  "  secretary  to  the 
new  association  established  for  the  purpose  of  separating  Ire- 
land from  England  by  force  of  arms !"  as  also  for  the  purpose  of 
"  extirpating  heresy" — that  Mr.  Hay,  (secretary  to  the  Catholic 
Committee,)  was  also  "private  secretary  to  this  new  association — 
that  "  he  had  been  supplied  with  a  blunderbuss,  and  many  others 
were  armed,  as  it  was  easy  to  procure  arms  out  of  the  castle  ! 
and  that  an  attack  was  shortly  to  be  made  upon  the  latter,"  &c. 

This  raw-head  and  bloody-bones  story,  which,  in  any  other 
country,  would  have  been  laughed  at  as  the  wanderings  of 
intoxication,  was  not,  however,  treated  lightly  by  the  Catholics. 
They  knew  only  too  well  that  their  unscrupulous  opponents  were 
capable  of  any  device,  no  matter  how  base  and  clumsy,  by 
which  even  the  suspicion  of  criminality  could  be  thrown  upon 
the  popular  party. 

At  this  day  it  would  not  be  quite  safe  for  the  members  of  the 
latter  entirely  to  neglect  a  similar  occurrence ;  as  the  continued 
misgovernment  of  Ireland  has  necessitated  a  continued  employ- 
ment, by  those  in  authority,   of  the  same  base  and  infamous 


132  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

means  which  were  in  fashion  in  1812,  and  preceding  years.  The 
Catholic  leaders,  accordingly,  did  what  the  Repeal  leaders  have 
to  do  with  the  pretended  Ribbon  plots  of  the  present  day, 
namely,  communicated  all  they  could  make  out  on  the  subject  to 
the  government.  In  doing  so,  however,  they  met  with  unex- 
pected, but  not  unparalleled  difficulties.  The  authorities,  to  use 
an  expression  which  Mr.  O'Connell  has  often  had  occasion  for, 
in  referring  to  such  occurrences,  were  "  not  at  all  pleased  at 
having  their  frie7ids  caught;"  and,  accordingly,  Mr.  Attorney- 
General  Saurin  actually  put  off  receiving  the  full  account  of  the 
matter,  and  otherwise  manifested  an  indifference,  very  strongly 
contrasting  with  the  cat-like  vigilance  and  activity  with  which 
anything  that  could  tend,  even  in  the  remotest  degree,  really  to 
implicate  the  Catholic  party,  had  been  watched  for  and  seized 
upon. 

The  man  who  had  made  the  extraordinary  declaration  we 
have  given,  had  attempted,  when  sober,  to  retract  it :  but,  on 
being  pressed,  he  deliberately  repeated  all  that  he  had  said 
before,  and  even  added  something  to  the  story.  This  delibe- 
rateness  on  his  part  manifested  that,  whatever  the  design  might 
be,  there  were  concert  and  premeditation  in  it;  and,  consequently, 
the  Catholic  leaders  were  the  more  urgent  in  pressing  their 
communication  upon  the  reluctant  government.  The  following 
is  the  account  of  their  proceedings  which  appeared  in  all  the 
papers : — 

"  It  was  resolved  that  the  commuuication  should  be  made,  in  the 
presence  either  of  Mr.  Grattan,  or  the  Knight  of  Kerry — a  precau- 
tion which,  circunistauced  as  the  members  of  the  Catholic  Committee 
were,  they  thought  prudent. 

"  Neither  of  these  distinguished  gentlemen  were  in  town  on 
Friday ;  but  expresses  were  sent  them,  and  also  to  Lord  Fingal,  who 
was  at  Killeen  Castle ;  and  early  on  Saturday  morning  the  three 
arrived  in  town. 

"  It  was  the  opinion  of  these  gentlemen  that  they  ought,  in  the 
first  instance,  to  wait  upon  the  Attorney-General,  to  inform  him  that 
Lord  Fingal,  and  some  other  Catholic  gentlemen,  had  a  communica- 
tion to  make  to  him,  touching  the  existence  of  a  treasonable  con- 
spiracy— that  they  were  then  ready  to  make  it,  and  to  know  if  the . 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  133 

Attorney-General  was  ready  to  receive  them  for  that  purpose.  This 
course  was  accordingly  adopted. 

"  Mr.  Grattan  and  Mr.  Fitzgerald  accordingly  waited  on  the 
Attorney- General  on  Saturday,  the  5th  of  January,  and  stated  the 
object  of  their  visit.  Mr.  Attorney- General  was  '  not  then  ready  to 
receive  the  communication  f  We  understand  that  he  asked  if  there 
wei'e  any  depositions  upon  oath  ;  and  recommended  to  Lord  Fingal, 
and  the  other  gentlemen,  to  go  before  a  police  magistrate,  and  give 
their  information  to  him ;  that  that  was  the  usual  way,  and  did  not 
seem  to  think  it  at  all  necessary  to  see  the  Catholic  gentlemen 
himself! 

"  "We  understand  the  Attorney- General  was  strongly  pressed  to 
receive  the  communication,  and  to  submit  it  to  the  Irish  govern- 
ment ;  that  he  asked  whether  the  gentlemen  meant  to  come  to  him  as 
a  committee  ?  To  which  the  Knight  of  Kerry  replied,  '  No,  sir ;  they 
will  wait  on  you  merely  as  individuals.' 

"At  length  the  Attorney- General  appointed  the  hour  of  twelve,  at 
Mr.  Pole's  office,  in  the  Castle,  on  Monday,  the  7th,  to  receive  the 
communication.  He  said  he  wanted  to  go  to  his  country  seat,  and 
supposed  there  could  be  no  danger  in  the  meantime. 

"  The  Earl  of  Fingal,  Major  Bryan,  and  Mr.  O'Connell  were 
appointed  to  go  to  Mr.  Pole's  office  at  that  hour ;  they  did  so  accord- 
ingly, and  were  accompanied  by  Mr.  O'Gorman.  We  understand 
that  they  gave  a  brief  statement  of  the  confession  made  by  the  school- 
master ;  gave  in  his  name,  and  the  names  and  residences  of  some  of 
the  trustees  who  were  witnesses  to  that  confession ;  and  also  some 
printed  papers  belonging  to  this  association.  They  were  received  by 
the.  Attorney-General  and  Mr.  Pole  with  ceremonious  politeness  ; 
and  having  made  their  communication,  withdrew,  leaving  it  to  the 
government  to  act  as  they  should  think  fit. 

"  We  have  heard,  too,  that  the  Attorney-General  offered  some 
excuse  for  postponing  the  meeting  from  Saturday  to  Monday.  He 
said  he  had,  on  second  thoughts,  written  to  Mr.  Grattan,  to  say  that 
he  would  be  glad  to  see  Lord  Fingal  upon  Sunday  ;  but  as  Mr. 
Grattan  had  returned  to  his  house  in  the  country,  the  letter  had  fol- 
lowed him  there,  when  Mr.  Grattan  had  written  in  answer  that  the 
matter  did  not  press. 

"  Lord  Fingal  replied,  <  Mr.  Attorney- General,  tve  feel  that  it 
pressed  on  us  to  make  the  communication  as  speedily  as  possible.' 

"  We  have  now  stated  all  the  facts   that  have   come  to  our  know- 


134  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

ledge.  We  do  fearlessly  ask,  do  these  facts  requii-e  comment  ?  The 
laic  officer  of  the  crown  refuses  to  hear  of  a  treasonable  conspiracy, 
otherwise  than  in  due  form  of  law ;  he  is  afraid  to  receive  intelli- 
gence, important  to  the  state,  lest  he  should  admit  delegation  ;  and, 
lastly,  he  postpones  obtaining  this  knowledge  from  Saturday  to 
Monday.  It  was,  of  course,  quite  impossible  that  the  intentions  of 
the  Catholic  committee  to  make  the  disclosure  should  remain  a  secret. 
The  implicated  obtain  time,  from  Saturday  to  Monday,  to  conceal 
themselves.  Good  Heaven !  where  did  this  conspiracy  commence  ? 
We  will  say  where  it  did  not  commence.  It  did  not  commence  with 
the  Catholics,  who  have  used  their  utmost  exertions  to  put  it  in  the 
power  of  government  to  have  it  out ;  it  did  not  originate  with  them, 
whose  hopes  of  emancipation  would  be  blasted  by  treason  or  disaffec- 
tion. No!  whatever  it  be,  it  is  a  conspiracy  against  the  Catholics ; 
and,  being  confined,  as  it  must  be,  to  a  few  miserable  dupes  of  the 
lowest  order,  it  is  a  conspiracy  useful  to  administration." 

Can  any  one  wonder  at  this  comment  of  the  newspaper  on 
the  transaction  above  detailed  ?  How  often,  in  the  present  day, 
have  not  our  journalists  to  make  remarks  of  similar  tendency 
and  effect  on  similar  occasions  ? 

Keegan,  the  schoolmaster  in  question,  was  apprehended,  and 
a  show  made  of  taking  evidence  against  him,  and  instituting  a 
criminal  prosecution  ;  but  the  same  unusual  tardiness  and  back- 
wardness which  had  marked  the  Attorney- General's  reception  of 
the  first  intelligence  of  the  affair,  was  visible  in  the  rest  of  the 
proceedings ;  and  the  end  was,  that  a  few  months  later,  Keegan, 
and  one  or  two  who  were  supposed  to  be  implicated  with  him, 
were  discharged  by  proclamation. 

Irritated  as  the  members  of  the  government  doubtless  were, 
at  the  drunken  indiscretion  of  the  man,  by  which  the  hopeful 
plot  was  blown  upon,  ere,  under  the  anxious  care  of  their  subor- 
dinate agents,  it  couid  be  ripened  into  mischief,  and  brought 
forward  as  a  grand  discovery  of  popish  treason,  they  yet  dared 
not  punish  their  tool,  lest  he  should  be  driven  to  make  disclo- 
sures, very  inconvenient  to  them,  as  to  the  parties  who  were 
really  behind  the  scenes. 

In  a  recent  valuable  work,  "  The  Connection  between  Great 
Britain  and   Ireland  considered,"  by   Dr.   Madden,  there  are 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  135 

copious  extracts  given  of  correspondence  between  the  Irish 
government,  during  the  years  1816 — 18,  and  various  magis- 
trates and  others  throughout  the  country,  relative  to  agrarian 
disturbances,  insurrectionary  movements,  real  or  pretended,  &c. 
In  that  correspondence  it  will  be  seen  that  no  story,  however 
improbable,  no  legend,  however  idle,  that  the  fertile  imagination 
of  local  tyrants,  sharpened  by  the  desire  of  getting  more  power 
of  tyranny  into  their  hands,  and  by  the  coward  fear  that  their 
bad  consciences  inspired  them  with,  could  invent,  was  considered 
too  wild,  or  monstrous,  to  be  attended  to ;  and  its  authors  cour- 
teously thanked  for  their  promptitude  in  giving  intelligence,  and 
encouraged  to  continue  their  valuable  services  to  the  state. 
Yet  here  were  Catholic  gentlemen,  of  high  respectability  and 
rank,  making  a  thoroughly-supported  representation  of  most 
suspicious  circumstances,  and  all  but  laughed  at  to  their  faces  ! 

Another  circumstance  of  the  affair  we  have  given  the  narra- 
tion of,  is  strikingly  indicative  of  their  sense  of  the  social  infe- 
riority which  pervaded  the  Catholic  body.  Lord  Fingal,  a  peer, 
at  least  of  Ireland  ;  Major  Bryan,  a  gentleman  of  very  large 
landed  possessions  ;  and  Mr.  O'Connell,  a  barrister  of  consider- 
able standing  and  high  practice,  felt  that  it  would  be  prudent  for 
them,  in  approaching  officials,  to  secure  the  companionship,  and, 
as  it  were,  the  countenance  of  two  Protestant  gentlemen,  no 
more  than  the  equals  of  Messrs.  O'Connell  and  Bryan,  and,  of 
course,  inferior  in  rank  to  Lord  Fingal. 

A  chance  circumstance  connected  with  the  recent  agg^reo'ate 
meeting,  will  be  found  of  a  certain  interest.  It  was  attended  by 
the  gifted  but  most  unhappy  Percy  Bysche  Shelley — unhappy 
in  the  wildness,  the  madness  of  his  after-errors,  and  unhappy  in 
his  untimely  fate.  Seldom  has  there  been  exhibited  to  the 
world  a  more  striking  and  lamentable  instance  of  the  ruinous 
effects  of  the  want  of  a  proper  control  and  guidance  in  youth. 
The  more  talent,  energy,  fire,  the  greater  and  more  certain  the 
danger,  if  the  wild  impulses  be  not  watched,  and  checked,  and 
turned  in  a  right  and  safe  direction — while  yet  the  youthful 
character  is  plastic,  and  manhood's  pride,  and  indurated  vigour, 
have  as  yet  not  been  enlisted  in  the  cause  of  error. 

It  was  a  generous  and  a  Christian  impulse  that  impelled  him 
to  attend  the  meeting  in  question,  and  to  express  the  sentiments 


136  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

which  he  shortly  after  embodied  in  a  publication,  distributed  by 
him  throuofh  Dublin.    We  take  the  following  extracts  from  it : — 


"PROPOSALS 

FOR    AN 

ASSOCIATION  OF  THOSE  PHILANTHROPISTS, 

*'  Who,  convinced  of  the  inadequacy  of  the  moral  and  political  state 
of  Ireland  to  produce  benefits  tohich  are,  nevertheless,  attainable, 
are  willing  to  unite  to  accomplish  its  regeneration. 

"  [  propose  an  association  which  shall  have,  for  its  immediate 
objects,  Catholic  Emancipation,  and  the  Repeal  of  the  Act  of 
Union  between  Great  Britain  and  Ireland ;  and  grounding  on  the 
removal  of  those  grievances  an  annihilation,  or  palliation,  of  what- 
ever moral  or  political  evil  it  may  be  within  the  compass  of  human 
power  to  assuage  or  eradicate. 

"  It  is  my  opinion  that  the  claims  of  the  Catholic  inhabitants  of 
Ireland,  if  gained  to-morrow,  would,  in  a  very  small  degree, 
aggrandize  their  liberty  and  happiness.  The  disqualification,  princi- 
pally aifect  the  higher  orders  of  the  Catholic  persuasion ;  these 
would  chiefly  be  benefitted  by  their  removal.  Power  and  wealth  do 
not  benefit,  but  injure  the  cause  of  virtue  and  freedom. 

"  I  am  happy,  however,  at  the  near  approach  of  this  emancipation, 
because  I  am  inimical  to  all  disqualifications  for  opinion.  It  gives 
me  pleasure  to  see  the  approach  of  this  enfranchisement,  not  for  the 
good  which  it  will  bring  with  it,  but  because  it  is  a  sign  of  benefits 
approaching — a  prophet  of  good  about  to  come ;  and,  therefore,  do 
I  sympathize  with  the  inhabitants  of  Ireland  in  this  great  cause — a 
cause  which,  though  in  its  own  accomplishment  will  add  not  one 
comfort  to  the  cottager — will  snatch  not  one  from  the  dark  dungeon — 
will  root  out  not  one  vice — alleviate  not  one  pang — yet  it  is  a  fore- 
ground of  a  picture,  in  the  dimness  of  whose  distance  I  behold  the 
lion  lay  down  with  the  lamb,  and  the  infant  play  with  the  basilisk ; 
for  it  supposes  the  extermination  of  the  eyeless  monster  bigotry, 
whose  throne  has  tottered  for  200  years.  I  hear  the  teeth  of  the 
palsied  beldame  superstition  chatter,  and  I  see  her  descending  to  the 
grave  !  Reason  points  to  the  open  gates  of  the  temple  of  religious 
freedom  ;  philanthropy  kneels  at  the  altar  of  the  common  God  ! 
"  Does  a  God  rule  this  illimitable  uiiiverse  ?     Are  you  thankful 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  137 

for  his  beneficence  ?  Do  you  adore  his  wisdom  ?  Do  you  hang 
upon  his  altai"  the  garland  of  your  devotion  ?  Curse  not  your 
brother  though  he  hath  enwreathed  with  his  flowers  of  a  diflferent 
hue  ;  the  purest  religion  is  that  of  charity. 

"  I  regard  the  admission  of  the  Catholic  claims,  and  the 
Repeal  of  the  Union  Act,  as  blossoms  of  that  fruit  which  the 
summer  sun  of  improved  intellect  and  progressive  virtue  are  destined 
to  mature. 

"  I  will  not  pass,  unreflected  on,  the  Legislative  Uniou  between 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland  ;  nor  will  I  speak  of  it  as  a  grievance  so 
tolerable,  or  unimportant  in  its  own  nature  as  that  of  Catholic  dis- 
qualification. The  latter  affects  few ;  the  former  affects  thousands. 
The  one  disqualifies  the  rich  from  power  ;  the  other  impoverishes 
the  peasant,  adds  beggary  to  the  city,  famine  to  the  country,  multi- 
plies abjectness,  whilst  misery  and  crime  play  into  each  other's  hands, 
under  its  withering  auspices.  I  esteem,  then,  the  annihilation  of  this 
second  grievance  as  something  more  than  a  mere  sign  of  coming 
good.  I  esteem  it  to  be  in  itself  a  substantial  benefit.  The 
aristocracy  of  Ireland  (much  as  I  disapprove  of  other  distinctions 
than  those  of  virtue  and  talent,  I  consider  it  useless,  hasty,  and 
violent,  not  for  the  present  to  acquiesce  in  their  continuance) — the 
aristocracy  of  Ireland  suck  the  veins  of  its  inhabitants,  and  consume 
the  blood  in  England 

"  England,  the  whole  civilized  world,  with  few 

exceptions,  is  either  sunk  in  disproportionate  abjectness,  or  raised 
to  unnatural  elevation.  The  Repeal  of  the  Union  Act  will  place 
Ireland  on  a  level  with  her  sister  nation.  Benevolent  feeling  has 
gone  out  in  this  country  in  favour  of  the  happiness  of  its  inhabitants. 
May  this  feeling  be  corroborated,  methodized,  and  continued !  But  it 
will  not  be  kept  alive  by  each  citizen  sitting  quiet  by  his  own  fire- 
side, and  saying  that  things  are  going  on  well,  because  the  rain  does 
not  beat  on  Aim;  because  he  has  books  and  leisure  to  read  them; 
because  he  has  money  and  is  at  leisure  to  accumulate  luxuries  to 
himself.  "When  the  heart  recurs  to  the  thousands  who  have  no 
liberty,  and  no  leisure,  it  must  be  callous  by  long  contemplation  of 
wretchedness,  if  after  such  recui'rence  it  can  beat  with  contented 
evenness." 

What  glimpses,  or  rather  plain  evidences  are  there  not  here, 
of  a  mind  capable  of  much  good  and  much  usefulness,  had  it 
not  been  abandoned  to  its  own  wild  impulses. 


138  MEMOIR    AND    SPEKCHES    OF 

The  allusion  to  the  effect  on  the  "  higher  orders"  of  Catholics 
was,  so  far  as  those  of  them  who  have  most  benefitted  by  the 
Emancipation  Act,  truly  prophetic.  "  Power  and  wealth"  have 
sadly  injured,  with  them,  "  the  cause  of  freedom  and  virtue." 
They  have  forgotten  the  honest  people  who  helped  them  to  their 
honours  and  advantages. 

In  the  remarks  upon  Repeal  there  is  the  same  singular  ap- 
positeness  to  the  present  day,  that  we  had  before  occasion 
to  notice.  If  there  be  more  in  one  part  than  another,  it  is 
in  the  concluding  portion.  Those  who  are  at  ease  should, 
indeed,  recollect  the  myriads  who  are  in  want  and  wretchedness  ; 
should  not  deem  their  own  leisure  and  luxuries  fairly  enjoyed, 
until  they  had  done  something  to  procure  necessaries  and  com- 
forts for  their  less  fortunate  fellow-countrymen ;  should  not 
blink  with  worse  than  idle  excuses,  of  want  of  taste  for  public 
life,  want  of  ability,  (an  excuse  they  do  not  credit  themselves,) 
the  discharge  of  at  least  some  portion  of  their  duty  as  citizens 
of  a  distressed,  and  impoverished,  and  oppressed  state. 

The  state  prosecutions  against  the  Catholic  gentlemen,  whose 
arrest,  &c.,  has  been  before  narrated,  were  re-comraenced 
towards  the  end  of  this  month,  January,  1812.  The  following 
scene  will  serve  to  illustrate  still  further  the  base  practices  of 
the  government : — 

"  January  27,  1812. —  The  King  at  the  prosecution  of  Huddlestone 
V.  Messrs.  Kirivan,  Taaffe,  and  others. 

"  When  the  panel  had  been  called  over,  Mr.  Burrowes,  of  counsel 
for  the  traversers,  submitted  the  following  challenge  to  array  : — 

"  '  And  the  said  Thomas  Kirwan  comes  and  challenges  the  array,  and 
says,  that  the  said  panel  was  made  by  John  Kingston  James,  who, 
at  the  time  of  making  the  same,  v/as  one  of  the  sheriffs  of  the  city  of 
Dublin,  and  who  in  name  of  himself  and  Robert  Harty,  the  other 
sheriff  of  said  city,  returned  said  panel  at  the  instance  and  request 
of  Thomas  Kemmis,  then  and  still  crown  solicitor  and  attorney  for 
the  prosecution  in  the  case.'  " 

On  this  challenge,  Mr.  Kemmis,  the  crown  solicitor,  was 
examined  before  triers  appointed  by  the  court.  He  deposed, 
on  a  long  examination,  that  Mr.  James  (the  present  Sir  John 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  139 

Kingston  James)  had  not  shown  him  the  panel,  nor  acquainted 
him  with  its  contents.  But  upon  re-examination  by  Mr.  Bourne, 
(of  counsel  with  Mr.  Burrowes)  the  following  came  out : — 

"  Mr.  Bourne  begged  Mr.  Attorney  General's  pardon  for 
interrupting  him,  as  'he  had  to  ask  the  witness  a  few  more 
questions. 

"  Q.  You  have  said  that  you  have  heard  from  persons  in  the  street 
that  they  had  been  summoned.  Did  you  come  by  a  knowledge  of 
the  panel  in  any  other  way  than  by  information  you  received  from 
these  persons  ?     A.  Partly  I  did. 

"  Q.  What  other  way  ? 

"  [Here  the  Attorney  General  objected  to  the  question,  on  the 
ground  that  the  information  of  three  persons  was  not  evidence  to 
sustain  the  challenge.] 

"  The  Court,  after  hearing  several  arguments  on  both  sides,  over- 
ruled the  objection. 

"  Mr.  Bourne — I  ask  you  again,  sir,  in  what  other  way  did  you 
come  by  your  knowledge  of  the  panel?  A.  I  got  a  list  of  the  names 
of  such  jurors  as  were  impannelled  on  the  jury. 

"  Q.  Were  any  of  those  persons  called?  A.  Some  of  them  were, 
and  are  to  be  on  the  juiy  to  be  sworn. 

"  Q.  From  whom  did  you  get  the  list  ? 

*'  Witness. — Mr.  Attorney  General,  am  I  to  answer  that  question  ? 

"  Attorney  General. — I  think  not,  but  that  will  be  for  the  considera- 
tion of  the  Court.  We  are  not  now  to  enquire  into  the  conduct  of 
any  man  but  the  persons  stated  in  the  challenge. 

"  The  Court  consider  the  question  as  admissible. 

"  Mr.  Bourne — Mr.  Kemmis,  however  reluctant  you  may  feel,  I  am 
authorized  by  the  Coui't  to  ask  you  from  whom  did  you  get  that 
list  ?     A.  From  Sir  Charles  Saxton. 

"  [Great  and  general  murmurs.  Here  Mr.  Goold  observed  that 
the  discovery  of  this  vile  plot  had,  indeed,  afforded  ample  viaterials 
for  the  newspapers  to  dilate  on,  and  he  trusted,  that  the  independent 
press  of  Ireland  would  do  its  duty  by  the  public,  by  its  just  animad- 
versions of  this  abominable  transaction.] 

"  Mr.  Bourne  resumed Q.  Have  you  that  list,  sir,  now  in  your 

possession  ?     A.  I  have  not — it  may  be  in  Kildare  street.     I  have  it 
not  about  me. 

"  Q.  Where  did  you  see  it  last  ?  A.  In  Kildare  street,  in  my 
father's  house,    in  my  possession.     [Witness   appeared    greatly  em- 


140  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

barrassed.]  I  dare  say  it  is  now  in  my  own  house;  but  I  am  not 
sure  ;  however,  I  don't  think  I  brought  it  into  court. 

"  Q.  On  what  day  did  you  get  that  list  from  Sir  Charles  ?  A.  It 
was  on  Friday  evening  last. 

"  Q.  Can  you  recollect  where  you  received  it  ?  A.  I  received  it 
at  the  Castle ! 

"  Q.  Sir  Charles  Saxton  is  under-secretary  to  the  lord  lieutenant ; 
was  it  in  his  office  ?     A.  It  was  in  a  room  near  his  office. 

"  Q.  Do  you  recollect  what  number  of  names  it  contained  ?  A.I 
do  not. 

"  Q.  Can  you  take  on  you  to  say  there  was  one  hundred  ?  A.I 
don't  think  there  was  near  it. 

"  Q.  Mr.  Kemmis,  will  you  take  the  trouble  of  saying  whether  it 
is  in  court,  or  where  it  is  ?     A.  I  can't  tell. 

"  Q,  Can  you  say  there  were  fifty  names  in  Sir  Charles's  panel — I 
mean  Sir  Charles's  list  ?     A.  I  think  there  were. 

"  Q.  "Were  there  more  ?  A.  No,  but  I  think  there  might  have 
been  more ;  I  don't  recollect  them. 

"  Q.  Were  there  any  persons  present  when  you  received  that 
list  ?     I  don't  think  there  were. 

"  Q.  How  did  it  happen,  sir,  to  come  into  your  possession  ?  Did 
you  go  to  Sir  Charles  for  that  list,  or  did  he  send  for  you  ?  A.  I 
happened  to  be  there  about  some  business  ;  don't  recollect  exactly 
what  passed  ;  he  handed  it  to  me." 

The  examination  of  this  witness  having  concluded,  Mr. 
Kemmis,  sen.,  gave  evidence  as  follows : — 

"  Q.  Mr.  Kemmis,  you  are  the  father  of  the  last  witness,  and  you 
have  heard  his  evidence ;  you  have  produced  Sir  Charles's  list ; 
where  did  it  come  from  ?     A.  Out  of  my  pocket. 

"  Q.  Why  did  you,  sir,  search  for  it  in  your  bag,  and  in  your  desk  ? 
A.    /  did  not  know  I  had  it  at  the  time. 

"  Q.  What  time  did  you  get  it  into  your  possession  ?  A.  I  dare 
say  those  two  days. 

"  Q.  Look  at  the  names  in  the  list  and  tell  me  are  they  all  in  the 
panel?  A.  The  first  name.  Sir  Thomas  Newcomen,  is  not  on  the 
panel ;  Mr.  Luke  White  is  not  on  ;  John  Lindsay  is  not  on  it. 

"[Here  Mr.  Burrowes  requested  Mx\  Bourne,  the  officer  of  the 
court,  to  compare  Sir  Charles's  list  with  the  panel,  for  the  purpose  of 
ascertaining  in  what  respect  they  had  differed  from  each  other.     He 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  141 

(Mr.  BuiTowes)  insisted  that  the  list  must  either  have  been  taken 
from  the  panel,  or  the  panel  from  the  list ;  and  as  the  latter  was 
the  most  probable,  he  wished  to  know  the  names  of  such  persons  as 
appeared  on  the  list,  and  that  did  not  appear  on  the  panel.] 

"  The  names  of  the  following  persons  were  entered  in  Sir 
Charles's  list,  and  some  of  them  were  erased  from  the  panel,  and  the 
others  were  not  entered  on  it.  In  every  other  particular  the  names 
on  both  exactly  concurred. 

SIR  CHARLES'S  LIST. 

1  Sir  Thomas  Newcomen,  8  Thomas  Keenaghan, 

2  Luke  White,  9  T.  Crostwaite, 

3  John  Lindsay,  10  G.  Beaumont, 

4  Peter  Wilkinson,  11  H.  Higginbotham, 

5  Edward  Croker,  12  Robert  Law, 

6  Thomas  Thorpe  Franks,  lb  Robert  Armstrong, 

7  William  Haller,  14  J.  Hilles. 

Erased  from  the  panel  with  four  others. 

"  Q.  At  what  hour  on  Friday  last  did  you  receive  the  list  from  Sir 
Charles  Saxton  ?     A.  It  was  about  five  o'clock. 

"  Q.  Had  you  been  there  in  waiting  for  him  ?  A.  I  believe  I  was 
in  the  outer  room  for  a  little  time. 

"  Q.  What  brought  you  to  the  Castle ;  was  it  not  to  receive  the 
list  ?  A.  I  don't  know  what  brought  me  there  ;  it  might  have  been 
some  other  business." 

There  is  not  a  little  to  remind  the  reader  of  the  state  prosecu- 
tions in  the  years  1843-44,  in  all  this. 

The  trials  proceeded  notwithstanding ;  and,  upon  Thursday, 
the  30th  of  January,  Thomas  Kirwan  was  found  guilty.  No 
punishment  was,  however,  inflicted;  but,  as  the  government 
journal,  "  The  Patriot"  announced,  "  the  traverser  was  informed 
that,  notwithstanding  his  conviction,  he  was  perfectly  at  liberty 
to  go  at  large  upon  the  recognizance  he  had  already  provided. 
Any  further  proceedings  against  the  delegates  are,  for  the 
present,  declined." 

On  the  29th  of  February,  in  this  year,  another  aggregate 
meeting  of  the  Catholics  took  place  in  the  same  locality  as 
usual,  the  theatre  in  Fisharable-street,  to  "  petition  the  legis- 
lature, and  to  address  his  Royal  Highness  the  Prince  Regent." 


142  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

The  following  resolution,  amongst  others,  was  passed  at  this 
meeting : — 

Proposed  by  Mr.  Burke,  of  Glinsk,  and  seconded  by  Major 
Bryan,  and  resolved  unanimously — "  That  the  General  Commit- 
tee of  the  Catholics  of  Ireland,  appointed  by  the  aggregate 
meeting,  upon  the  ninth  day  of  July  last,  are  entitled  to  our 
thanks  ;  and  it  is  requested  that  they  will  not  meet,  until  the 
legality  of  their  doing  so  is  decided." 

A  resolution,  moved  and  seconded  by  the  same  parties,  express- 
ing the  thanks  of  the  meeting  to  "  our  friends  in  parliament. 
Earl  Grey  and  Lord  Grenville,"  was  spoken  to  by  Mr. 
O'Connell. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  came  forvpard  and  said  he  did  not  mean  to  oppose 
the  motion,  nor  was  it  necessary  to  use  any  argument  in  its  support. 
Since  the  commencement  of  the  British  constitution  to  the  present 
hour,  no  statesman  had  ever  stood  higher  than  those  noble  lords 
in  public  estimation.  They  had,  with  the  purest  patriotism,  refused 
everything  that  power  could  give  ;  they  had  rejected  all  the  allure- 
ments of  office,  rather  than  sacrifice,  or  even  postpone  the  assertion 
of  principle — a  splendid  instance  of  public  virtue,  more  brilliant  for 
its  rarity  and  for  the  contrast  it  alforded  to  the  subserviency  of  their 
adversaries. 

"  It  was  unnecessary  to  urge  the  motion.  Every  Irish  heart  beat 
responsive  to  the  liveliest  accents  of  gratitude.  But  he  would  avail 
himself  of  that  opportunity  to  make  some  observations  on  the  recent 
events — on  those  interesting  events  which  had  occurred  since  the 
last  meeting  of  the  Catholics.  His  observations  should  certainly  be 
made  with  the  utmost  good  temper,  because,  in  truth,  there  was 
nothing  in  these  occurrences  to  irritate,  or  much  that  alForded  unmixed 
consolation. 

"  The  first  topic  that  presented  itself  was  the  late  trial  of  Mr. 
Kirwan.  That  trial  had  proved  only  what  was  already  well  known, 
namely,  that  it  was  possible  for  the  Irish  administration,  with  all  its 
resources,  to  find  a  single  jury  to  take  upon  itself  to  swear  tliat 
pretence  means  purpose ;  and  that  the  man  who  was  admitted,  by 
his  prosecutors  and  judges,  to  be  innocent  in  act  and  intention,  was 
in  law  and  fact,  guilty. 

"  It,  however,  proved  that  one  such  jury  was  possible,  for  those 
who  saw  that  jury  must  admit,  that  it  was  not  in  human  nature  to 
afford  such  another.     Why,  the  administration  had  been  so   diligent 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,   M.P.  143 

in  the  search  of  originals,  that  they  had  actually  found  out  a  Mr. 
Donovan,  who  keeps  or  kept  a  crockery-ware  shop  on  the  Quays, 
and  who,  until  the  second  day  of  the  trial,  never  had  heard  of  the 
subject  matter  of  the  trial !  So  he  declared  before  he  was  sworn  on 
the  jury.  What  think  you  of  any  man,  not  absolutely  deaf,  who 
had  been  for  three  preceding  months  in  Dublin,  and  had  never 
before  heard  of  that  prosecution  ! 

"  But  a  verdict  obtained  in  the  manner  that  had  been  was  of  no 
importance.  The  public  mind  was  in  no  wise  affected  by  it.  It 
was  anticipated  from  the  commencement  of  the  pieces  of  plain  prose 
with  which  the  prosecution  was  opened,  to  the  morsel  of  brilliant 
hypocrisy  with  which  it  closed.  The  verdict  was  of  no  estimation, 
even  in  the  opinion  of  the  very  prosecutors,  who  felt  the  impossibility 
of  obtaining  another  ;  and  in  that  despair  relinquished  this  extraor- 
dinary crusade  against  the  right  of  petition.  To  this  despair  alone 
could  be  traced  the  abandonment  of  the  opposition  to  allow  the 
Catholics  the  poor  privilege  of  placing  themselves  in  a  body  upon 
their  knees. 

"  Two  traces  had  been  left  on  the  memory  of  the  late  state  trial. 
The  one  was  ludicrovis — the  other  had  in  it  something  of  a  more 
grave  nature.  The  first  merely  recalled  the  recollection  of  the 
farcical  epithets  applied  by  the  Solicitor  General  to  these  individuals. 
Of  the  Attorney  General  he  had  said  '  that  he  was  the  most  learned 
and  wisest  of  mankind  (a  very  general  laugh).  Mr.  Justice  Day 
he  called  a  magnanimous  judge'  (much  and  very  general  laughter)  ; 
and  what  was  still  more  ridiculous,  he  styled  himself  '  a  friend  to  the 
Catholics  of  Ireland'  (shouts  of  laughter).  The  magnanimous 
judge  had,  indeed,  returned  the  compliment,  and  in  a  speech  which 
was,  with  some  absurdity,  called  the  passing  of  sentence  on  Mr. 
Kirwan,  but  which,  in  fact,  was,  what  it  ought  to  be,  an  eulogium 
on  that  gentleman — an  eulogium  in  which  all  classes  would  readily 
join;  the  magnanimous  judge  retorted  tlie  compliment,  and  called 
the  Solicitor  General  '  the  friend  of  the  Catholics  J 

"  Good  God  I  what  a  notion  those  men  must  have  of  our  stupidity  ; 
what  dupes  and  idiots  they  must  take  us  to  be.  I  am  ready  to  con- 
cede '  magnanimity'  to  the  judge  ;  but  that  this  barrister  should  be  our 
friend — that  he  who  commenced  his  political  career  with  being,  whilst 
yet  young,  the  supporter  of  the  blood-written  administration  of  Lord 
Camden — that  he  who  can  look  at  his  own  children,  and  then  doom 
ours  to  be  degraded — who  has  shown  himself  ready  to  embrace  any 
servitude,  in  the  way  of  his  profession,  and  to  ensure  his  promotion — 


144  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

that  man  may  continue  to  persecute  us — I  consent — but  he  shall 
never  enjoy  the  notion  of  our  considering  him  as  '  a  friend  ;'  we  know 
him  well. 

"  The  graver  recollections  which  this  trial  has  left  behind  were 
suggested  by  the  facts  that  appeared  respecting  the  interference  of 
Sir  Charles  Saxton  with  the  jury  list. 

"  I  own  I  was  so  far  deceived  as  to  expect  that  all  that  was  solemn 
and  sanctified  about  the  Chief  Justice  would  have  been  roused  into  the 
semblance  of  animation,  when  he  heard  that  the  Crown  Solicitor  and 
Sir  Charles  Saxton  hunted,  in  couples,  for  the  knowledge  of  the  jury. 
I,  in  vain,  hoped  to  see  the  spark  of  what  I  should  call  honest 
constitutional  fire  illumine  all  that  was  dark  and  delightful  in  the 
pomp  of  religious  display ;  but,  no,  alas !  no,  the  interference, 
whatever  it  was,  of  the  Chief  Secretary  of  the  Castle  respecting  a 
jury  in  Dublin,  passed  off"  without  arousing  one  slumbering  motion, 
and  precisely  as  if  the  Chief  Secretary  were  the  accustomed  assistant 
of  the  attorney  for  the  prosecution. 

"But  this  is  a  grave  and  serious  subject.  Of  what  value  is  pro- 
perty— of  what  value  is  life,  if  the  Chief  Secretary  of  the  Castle, 
with  all  the  power,  and  all  the  wealth,  all  the  influence  of  the  crown  in 
his  hands,  is  to  take  any  part,  whatsoever,  respecting  the  manage- 
ment of  a  jury  ? 

"  If  this  be  once  allowed,  where,  or  how  is  any  line  to  be  drawn, 
or  what  can  be  devised  to  prevent  the  next  atrocious  contrivance  ? 
There  was,  indeed,  a  great  mistake  committed  in  the  defence.  I  take 
my  full  share — the  entire,  if  I  am  permitted — because  I  never  heard 
any  but  the  worst  reasons  why  we  did  not  examine  Sir  Charles 
Saxton.  The  truth  is,  we  all  did  expect  something  from  the  Court 
upon  a  precedent  so  pregnant  with  danger ;  but  the  reason  was,  that 
our  friend,  the  Solicitor  General,  made  a  most  solemn  asseveration, 
that  the  counsel  for  the  crown  would  sift  the  transaction  to  the 
bottom i  those  were  his  words;  we  idly  believed  him,  when  he  com- 
pelled Sir  Charles  to  attend.  Of  course  we  were  deceived  ;  but  why 
then  did  we  not  ourselves  examine  the  Secretary  ?  I  must  confess  I 
cannot  tell.  It  passed  over,  and  we  all  felt  our  error.  Would  to 
God  we  had  examined  him!  Would  to  God  we  had  sifted  him  on 
his  oath — where,  from  whom,  when  he  got  the  jury  list? — how  it 
happened  that  the  numbers  were  altered  ? — was  it  corruption  ? — was 
it  a  miracle  ? 

"  I  do  still  fondly  hope,  for  the  sake  of  law  and  of  justice — for  the 
sake  of  everything  valuable  to  Irishmen,  that  this  matter  is  not  at 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,   M.P.  145 

rest ;  but  that  the  baronet  or  knight,  whichever  he  be,  will  yet  have 
this  matter  seriously  and  solemnly  discussed  and  examined  by  parlia- 
ment ;  that  the  entire  transaction  shall  yet  appear  ;  and  that  my 
lords  the  justices  of  the  King's  Bench,  may  possibly,  hereafter,  think 
it  their  duty  not  to  suffer  so  strange  a  fact  to  pass  in  review  before 
them,  unexplained  and  unexplored. 

"  Allow  me  to  say  one  word  more,  and  I  conclude  as  to  the  late 
trial.  The  prosecutors  insulted  us,  by  excluding  every  Catholic  from 
the  jury;  they  injured  us,  too,  by  excluding  every  Presbyterian. 
How  I  thank  them  for  the  compliment  they  paid,  on  this  second  trial, 
to  the  sterling  integrity  of  the  Irish  Presbyterians,  the  very  best 
class  of  men  in  any  community.  To  all  that  is  generous  and  warm 
in  the  Irish  character,  they  add  a  firmness  and  a  discretion,  which 
improves  every  manly  virtue.  I  do  greatly  admire  the  fi'iends  of 
religious  and  civil  liberty — the  Presbyterians  of  Ireland. 

"  There  is  now  another,  and  a  different  topic,  to  which  I  would 
lead  you :  it  relates  to  an  afflicting  circumstance  which  occurred  since 
our  last  meeting.  You  will  recollect  that  I  then  warned  you  against 
the  machinations  of  your  enemies  ;  I  said  that  it  was  conjectured 
that  there  were  schemes  on  foot  to  involve  the  lower  classes  of  the 
people  in  some  idle  dream  of  disaffection  ;  I  cautioned  my  country- 
men against  those  schemes  ;  and  I  added,  '  that  any  person  who  suf- 
fered himself  to  be  implicated  in  them,  must  be  either  a  miserable 
dupe,  or  the  hired  spy  of  the  Castle.' 

"  Little  did  I  then  imagine,  that  my  prophetic  fears  would  be  so 
soon  realized  ;  little  did  I  then  imagine,  that  I  should  be  so  soon 
placed  in  that  most  distressing  situation  in  which  I  have  since  stood  ; 
that  I  should  be  reduced  to  the  necessity  of  feeling  the  abject  humi- 
liation of  disclosing  facts  which  might  be  fatal  to  some  of  my  deluded 
countrymen,  or  be  obliged  to  expose  them  all  to  the  danger  of  becom- 
ing the  victims  of  secret  conspiracy,  and  to  do  what  you  all  know  to 
be  impossible — to  violate  the  solemn  oath  of  allegiance,  which  I  have 
repeatedly  taken. 

"  Let  any  man  of  feeling  judge  of  my  situation.  I  did  feel  as  if 
I  were  degraded  ;  but  I  felt  that  I  could  not  be  untrue  to  honour, 
when  I  was  in  the  company  of  your  lordship,  and  my  most  estimable 
friend,  Captain  Bryan. 

"  The  affair  was  fortunately  passed  over ;  those  who  were  arrested 
have  been  discharged: 

"  '  My  bosom's  lord  sits  lightly  on  its  throne, 
when  I  recollect  that  those  men  have  been  restored  to  their  families ; 


146  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

but  I  must  again  indulge  in  anticipating  hope — I  must  still  hope  to 
see,  in  this  country,  an  administration  that  will  offer  pardon  and 
reward  to  the  proclaimed  conspirator,  Fisher,  for  the  disclosure  of 
who  were  his  instigators,  and  with,  or  under  whom  he  acted. 

"  I  may  be  much  mistaken  ;  but  I  do  expect,  then,  to  find  some  vile 
and  abominable  scheme  disclosed;  a  scheme  to  dupe  the  poor,  in 
order  to  continue  the  vassalage  of  the  rich.  Let  me  not  be  misun- 
derstood. I  do  not  mean  to  accuse  the  administration  at  the  Castle 
with  any  such  scheme :  it  is  of  a  nature  too  revolting  to  humanity  to 
allow  me  to  attribute  it  to  civilized  beings.  The  secretary  may, 
indeed,  indulge  his  taste  in  juries,  but  he  would  scorn  to  deal  in 
blood ;  the  scheme  is  confined,  if  it  exists  at  all,  to  some  of  the  infe- 
rior agents — to  some  expectant  place-huntei',  or,  rather,  perhaps,  to 
some  spy  by  profession,  who,  in  the  vacation  between  the  terms, 
happens  to  be  devoid  of  other  occupation.     (Applause.) 

*'  I  ought  not,  my  lord,  to  detain  you  longer ;  but  I  am  induced  to 
request  the  attention  of  the  meeting  to  a  publication  of  a  very  strange 
nature :  it  imports  to  be  a  report  of  a  speech  in  parliament,  and  it 
bears  the  name  of  Mr.  Wellesley  Pole 

[Here  Mr.  O'Connell  was  inteiTupted  by  Mr.  Francis  Huddleston — 
by  that  Francis  Huddleston  who  prosecuted  the  Catholic  delegates — 
who  wanted  to  address  the  chairman.  Mr.  Barnewall,  JNIajor  Bryan, 
Counsellors  Hussey  and  Finn  protested  against  this  attempt  with 
great  indignation,  and  were  strongly  supported  by  the  entire 
meeting.] 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  continued  his  address : — What  that  gentleman 
might  have  said  in  parliament,  I  am  quite  ignorant  of,  nor  do  I  inquire ; 
I  have  at  present  no  right  to  reply  to  him  here ;  and  I  entertain  little 
doubt  but  that  anything  to  our  prejudice,  or  in  his  own  praise — his 
favourite  subjects,  which  he  might  have  brought  forward — was  sufii- 
ciently  replied  to  and  exposed  ;  my  business  is  merely  with  a  news- 
paper publication — a  publication  contained  in  a  paper  bearing,  with  a 
constant  contempt  for  truth,  as  its  title,  the  sacred  name  of 
'  Patriot: 

"  This  publication  is  entitled,  '  the  speech  of  the  Right  Honourable 
"W.  W.  Pole.'  I  cannot  bring  myself  to  believe  that  any  man  could 
pronounce  such  a  discourse :  the  style  is  of  the  poorest  order ;  it  talks 
of  the  magistrates  having  a  row  with  the  Committee ;  and  there  are  a 
thousand  other  phrases  in  it  which  demonstrate  that  no  man  of  com- 
mon education  could  have  composed  it.  But  it  would  be  absurd  to 
waste  time  in  censuring  more  of  this  composition ;  it  is  the  absence 


DANIEL    O  CONNELL,    ESQ.,  M.P.  147 

of  truth  and  decency  which  distinguishes  it,  and  entitles  it  to  some 
notice  amongst  our  calumnies. 

"  Let  me  be  pardoned  whilst  I  delay  you  to  expose  its  want  of 
veracity.  It  is  by  calumny  alone  that  our  degradation  is  continued  ; 
if  nothing  were  told  of  us  falsely,  if  « nought  was  set  down  against 
us  in  malice,'  we  should  long  since  have  been  emancipated.  My 
lord,  I  beg  leave  to  confute  these  calumnies,  not  because  they  are 
talented  or  skilful,  but  simply  to  oppose  the  system  of  detraction. 

"  I  have  selected  six  different  assertions,  which  are  either  but  par- 
tially true,  or  destitute  of  any,  the  slightest  foundation  of  fact. 

"  The  first  I  shall  mention  is  one,  perhaps,  in  itself,  of  little 
moment ;  but  it  will  serve  to  show  how  incautious  '  this  speech'  is  in 
its  assertions.  It  does,  my  lord,  assert,  in  speaking  of  the  addition  to 
our  former  Committee,  in  the  beginning  of  1811 — 

"  1st — '  That  the  government  intended  to  stop  the  elections,  and 
did  stop  them.  The  ten  persons  which  (I  preserve  the  beauty  of  the 
original)  were  ordered  to  be  returned  from  each  county,  in  point  of 
fact,  never  did  assemble.' 

"  In  point  of  fact,  my  lord,  we  all  know  that  the  government  never 
stopped  any  such  election ;  that  it  never  did  interfere,  save  by  send- 
ing forth  the  slovenly  and  ludicrous  circular ;  and  that  in  point  of 
fact,  the  appointment  did  take  place  in  most  of  the  counties — every 
county  that  pleased — and  the  assembling  of  those  persons  was  a  mat- 
ter as  public,  and  as  well  known  to  the  government,  as  any  other  fact 
which  was  entrusted  to  the  daily  newspapers ;  but  there  is  certainly 
this  happy  colour  for  the  assertion  of  the  speech — that  all  the  counties 
in  Ireland  did  not  appoint  to  the  last  Committee. 

"  It  is  also  asserted — 

"  2nd — '  That  Lord  Ffrench,  in  consequence  of  the  violence  of  the 
members  of  the  Committee,  selected  from  them.' 

"  When  shall  I  find  time  to  express  my  astonishment  at  this  asser- 
tion— an  assertion  directly,  pointedly,  and  positively  the  contrary  of 
the  fact.  Mr.  "VY.  W.  Pole  could  never  have  said  any  such  thing. 
Why,  Lord  Ffrench  was  in  the  chair,  when  Mr.  Pole  sent  his  police- 
justice  to  disperse  that  Committee.  Lord  Ffrench  entered  into  a 
correspondence  with  Mr.  Pole  to  maintain  that  Committee.  He 
lent  his  character,  his  rank,  and  his  talents  to  support  that  Committee  ; 
and,  in  pei'fect  defiance  of  Mr.  W.  W.  Pole,  he  did  support  it.  What 
becomes  of  the  audacious  assertion  of  his  secession  ? 

"  I  wish  my  noble  friend,  for  so  I  am  proud  to  call  him,  were 
allowed  by  his  health  to  be  here  this  day :  how  he  would  refute  this 


V, 

148  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

calumny.  He  never  seceded  or  deserted  the  Catholic  cause  ;  and  I 
can  assure  Mr.  W.  W.  Pole,  that  there  breathes  not  the  man  who 
would  presume  to  tell  his  lordship  that  he  seceded  from  the  Catholic 
Committee  or  the  Catholic  rights.  I  know  the  reply  which  such 
presumption  would  meet  and  merit. 

"  The  next  assertion  which  I  shall  notice  is — 

'<  3rd — '  That  many  of  the  counties  in  Ireland  could  not  produce 
ten  respectable  persons  of  the  Catholic  religion,  above  the  rank  of 
farmers.' 

"  Where  was  the  creature  found  who  wrote  this  speech  ?  Is  this 
ignorance  only,  or  is  it  unblushing  effrontery  ?  I  shall  not  stoop  to 
refute  this  foolish  untruth  ;  it  may  serve  a  purpose  in  England  ;  in 
this  country  it  is  almost  beneath  ridicule. 

"  We  soon  after  find  it  gravely  stated — 

"  4th — '  The  meetings  to  appoint  the  present  Committee  were  held 
for  the  most  part  during  the  assizes ;  but  they  were  conducted  in 
such  a  manner,  that  it  was  almost  impossible  to  find  out  what  passed 
at  the  time.' 

"  Shame,  shame  upon  this  profligate  speech- writer !  WTiy,  all 
Ireland  knows  that  these  meetings  were  held  with  even  ostentatious 
publicity  ;  that  they  were  crowded  by  Protestants ;  and  that  he  who 
could  make  the  assertion  that  I  have  just  quoted,  deserves  not  the 
trouble  of  contradiction.  It  may  be  supposed  that  it  was  impossible 
to  exceed  the  absurdity  of  the  last  mis-statement ;  but,  my  lord,  it  has 
been  exceeded,  for  I  find  in  this  speech  these  words — 

"5th — '  The  Earl  of  Fingal  had  also  seceded  from  the  Committee.' 

"  No,  my  lord,  calumny  more  absurd  was  never  invented  ;  asser- 
tion more  destitute  of  fact,  was  never  written.  [Lord  Fingal  declared 
his  assent.]  Yes,  my  lord,  you  are  thus  calumniated  ;  and  the  pur- 
pose of  publishing  these  untruths  only  aggravates  the  guilt  of  him, 
whoever  he  be,  that  invented  them. 

"  Thei'C  remains  yet  one  calumny.  I  do  not  entreat  the  members 
of  the  Committee,  so  many  of  them  I  see  about  me,  to  restrain  their 
indignation,  whilst  I  read  it.     It  is  this  : — 

"  6th — '  Mr.  Pole  said,  that  if  gentlemen  would  read  the  debates  of 
this  Committee,  they  would  find  separation  was  openly  and  distinctly 
recommended.' 

"  Mr.  Pole  said  no  such  thing  :  the  man  does  not  live,  sufficiently 
audacious  to  say  any  such  thing.  Why,  my  lord,  this  is  a  direct 
accusation  of  high  treason  ;  and  he  who  would  assert  it  of  me,  I 
would  brand  with  the  foulest  epithets.     No  ;  a  writer  in  a  newspaper 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  149 

may  be  found  to  compose  such  a  paragraph,  but  no  man  in  his  senses, 
in  the  world,  dare  to  utter  it  aloud.  But  if  it  were  said,  I  care  not, 
while  I  proclaim  it  to  the  world  to  be  unfounded  as  it  is  injurious — 
as  false  as  it  is  foul ;  and  I  defy  the  slightest  proof  to  be  given  of 
its  veracity. 

"  I  have  trespassed  upon  you  too  long,  with  this  miserable  publica- 
tion ;  it  deserves  notice  only,  because  having  circulated  among  the 
English,  who^  know  us  not,  it  may,  remaining  uncontradicted,  be 
believed.  In  the  six  assertions  Avhich  I  have  noticed,  there  is  but 
one  that  has  the  slightest  pretensions  to  any  colour  of  being  other- 
wise than  being  directly  and  palpably  the  exact  reverse  of  the 
fact. 

"I  am  tempted  to  give  you  another  instance  of  the  stuff  this 
speech  is  made  of.  It  treats  of  the  book  called  '  The  Statement  of 
the  Penal  Law,'  and,  as  usual,  it  flagrantly  misrepresents  or  absurdly 
replies.  I  have  been  done  the  great  honour,  by  some  persons,  of 
having  that  book  attributed  to  me.  I  should  be  proud  to  own  it  if 
I  could,  but  I  am  incapable  of  writing  so  excellent  a  composition,  or 
of  sharing  the  honour  with  a  gentleman  to  whose  pen  the  Catholics 
of  Ireland  are  deeply  indebted,  for  everything  admirable  that  has 
emanated  from  him  ;  and  never  were  they  more  obliged  than  by  the 
address  and  petition  which  you  have  adopted  this  day. 

"  I  do  not  choose  to  dilate  on  the  resplendent  talents  of  my 
respected  friend  ;  but  in  him  Ireland  possesses  a  model  of  classical 
taste  and  refined  judgment,  devoted  exclusively  to  patriotic  pur- 
poses. His  book  has  been  criticised  in  this  speech  ;  and  the  law, 
which  is  the  intervention  of  the  commissioners  of  charitable  donations, 
precludes  the  possibility  of  establishing  a  Catholic  charity,  with 
permanent  funds,  is  palliated  by  endeavouring  to  show,  that  the 
rigour  of  the  statute  is  softened  by  the  mildness  of  the  commis- 
sioners. It  is  alleged  that  they  humanely  spare  many  a  popish 
chai'ity,  and  allow  the  pious  sin  to  be  perpetrated  in  quiet.  In- 
stances of  their  forbearance  are  given;  and  amongst  them  we  find 
the  following,  under  date,  1810: — 'James  Baldwin,  of  Macroom, 
county  Cork,  left  all  his  lands,  in  reversion,  to  Doctors  Segrave  and 
Moylan,  in  trust,  to  raise  £400  per  annum,  for  ever,  to  establish  a 
school  to  instruct  poor  children  in  the  tenets  of  the  Church  of 
Rome.' 

"  This  is  one  of  the  instances  of  the  lenity  of  the  commissioners  of 
charitable  donations.  Now,  let  me  tell  you  what  the  value  of  their 
kindness  is — Mr.  Baldwin  was  married  to  a  near  relation  of  mine. 


150  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

I  am  his  executor.  It  was  I  proved  the  will,  so  that  I  am  authority 
upon  this  point.  The  fact  is,  that  he  had  eight  children,  five  of 
whom  are  married,  and  have,  most  of  them,  large  and  increasing 
families.  He  first  devised  his  estates  to  his  children,  successively, 
and  their  issue,  male  and  female  ;  then  to  two  other  individuals  of  his 
own  name,  having  families,  and  their  issue,  male  and  female  ;  and 
after  the  decease  of  aU  those  persons,  between  70  and  80  in  being, 
and  all  their  issue,  this  £400  per  annum,  is  beqeathed  to  endow  a 
Catholic  school,  so  that  the  vesting  of  this  bequeath  depends  on  the 
contingency  of  about  80  persons  dying  without  issue,  an  event  very 
little  likely  to  take  place  in  this  country. 

"  Such  is  the  wonderful  forbearance  of  those  commissioners — such 
is  the  happy  art  attributed  to  Mr.  W.  W.  Pole,  of  furnishing  proofs 
and  illustrations.  Yes,  this  article  illustrates  the  active  genius  of 
the  speech.  Unfounded  assertion,  ridiculous  argument,  paltry  self- 
sufficiency,  and  ludicrous  quotation,  distinguished  the  narrative  of  the 
parish  clerk,  whose  situation,  exposing  him  to  public  view,  he  has 
mistaken  for  elevation.  I  have  to  apologise  for  attaching  so  much 
importance  to  matters  so  insignificant. 

"  I  hasten  to  conclude  by  expressing  my  conviction  that  the 
Emancipation  is  certain,  and  will  be  immediate.  The  generous,  the 
cordial  support  of  our  Protestant  brethren,  in  Ireland,  assures  us  of 
it.  The  petition — which  is  exclusively  their  measure,  and  with 
respect  to  which,  every  Catholic  has  scrupulously  avoided  the  least 
interference — the  Protestant  petition  has,  at  this  moment,  more 
signatures  to  it  than  were  affixed  to  any  petition  of  our  own.  It 
has  been  supported  in  every  county  by  the  wealth,  talent,  and  rank 
of  our  affectionate  countrymen,  and  I  am  proud  to  see  amongst  us 
this  day,  at  the  head  of  so  many  of  our  Protestant  friends,  a  noble 
Lord  (Grlentworth)  whose  ardent  patriotism  entitled  him  to  the  grati- 
tude of  every  class  of  his  fellow  subjects  ;  and  whom  we  shall  see  met 
by  corresponding  patriotic  exertions,  and  proudly  placed  in  the  first 
rank  of  the  representatives  of  his  native  country.  The  voters  of 
Limerick  will  not  be  blind  to  the  insults  they  have  received  from 
other  quarters,  nor  to  their  own  interests  and  dignity,  nor  to  the 
worth  of  the  noble  lord. 

"  We  have  the  Protestants  of  Ireland  in  our  favour — the  Pro- 
testants of  England,  at  least  the  rational  part  of  them,  are  not  op- 
posed to  us.  No,  in  the  two  last  discussions  in  parliament,  the  right 
and  justice  of  our  claims  were  conceded,  even  by  those  who  opposed 
on  the  ground  of  the  time  ;  there  was  but  one  solitary  exception — a 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  1.51 

single  inJividual,  Sir  John  Nichol,  who  was  sent  forward  as  the 
scape-goat  of  English  bigotry,  to  revive  ancient  calumny,  and  to  add 
some  fresh  ones ;  he  was  installed  in  the  enviable  office  of  successor 
to  Dr.  Duignan  ;  but,  good  Lord !  he  is  quite  unfit  for  the  employ- 
ment. There  was  about  Duignan,  a  sturdy,  robust,  unblushing 
eifrontory,  that  enabled  him  to  assert  anything,  and  prevented  the 
possibility  of  his  retreating.  This  poor  Nichol,  however,  was  no 
sooner  attacked  and  ridiculed,  at  eveiy  tide,  than  he  explained  one 
passage,  softened  down  another,  and  gave  up  a  third,  until  he  himself 
abandoned,  piecemeal,  the  web  of  intolerance,  so  that  it  really 
appears,  that  even  the  futile  resource  of  bigoted  calumny  is  at 
length  exhausted. 

"  Of  the  Prince  I  shall  say  nothing — uncertainty  as  to  present 
circumstances — reliance  on  the  past,  and  the  lingering  and  dutiful 
affection  in  a  heart  devoted  to  the  friend  of  Ireland,  restrain  me. 
To  canvass  the  subject  would  appear  to  be  the  entertaining  of  a 
doubt. 

"  Oh !  but  there  is  one  objection  still  remains  to  our  emancipation  ; 
it  is  quite  novel  and  most  important.  Our  enemies  object  to  the 
tone  which  the  Catholics  use.  This  notable  objection  was  struck  out 
by  the  Earl  of  Rosse.  He  disliked  our  tone — he  might  as  well 
have  quarrelled  with  our  accent — but  that  would  rather  be  a  strong 
measure  in  Lord  Rosse  (laughter).  Seriously,  however,  the  descendant 
of  Sir  William  Parsons  has  an  hereditary  right  to  be  the  enemy  of 
the  Catholics  upon  any  pretext,  or  even  without  one.  I  do  not 
believe  this  lord  has  fallen  into  inconsistency.  I  have  some  faint  recol- 
lection that,  under  the  name  of  Sir  Lawrence  Parsons,  he  once 
enacted  patriotism  in  Ireland — I  may  be  mistaken,  but  I  do  not 
think  he  ever  supported  our  claims  ;  and  I  am  quite  sure  I  wish  he 
never  may. 

"But  our  tone  is  disliked — yes,  my  lord,  they  dislike  the  tone 
which  men  should  use  who  are  deeply  anxious  for  the  good  of  their 
country,  and  who  have  no  other  object.  "We  are  impressed  with  the 
sense  of  the  perils  that  surround  us,  and  of  all  the  calamities  im- 
pending on  a  divided  and  distracted  people.  "We  see  our  own 
resources  lavishly  squandered  upon  absurd  projects,  whilst  our 
tottering  paper  currency  is  verging  fast  to  bankruptcy — the  fate  of 
every  other  paper  currency  that  has  as  yet  existed.  "We  see  the 
private  ruin  that  must  ensue,  the  destruction,  so  prodigally  hastened, 
of  the  funded  system.  We  see  the  most  formidable  military  force 
arrayed  on  the  Continent.     The  Emperor  of  the  European  world  is 


152  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

now  busied  with  some  quarrel  on  the  Northern  Frontier,  which  now 
extends  to  the  suburbs  of  St.  Petersburgh  ;  his  fleet  augments  by  tlie 
month  ;  who  shall  dare  to  say  that  we  shall  not  have  to  fight,  on  our 
own  shores,  for  the  last  refuge  of  civil  liberty,  in  this  eastern  world. 
What  blindness,  what  infatuation,  not  to  prepare  for  that  event ! 

"  "We,  my  lord,  assume  the  tone  which  may  terrify  the  invader ; 
we  use  the  tone  of  men  who  appreciate  the  value  of  civil  liberty, 
and  who  would  die  sooner  than  exchange  it  for  the  iron  sway  of 
military  rule.  We  talk  as  men  should,  who  dread  slavery  and 
disgrace,  but  laugh  to  scorn  the  idea  of  danger.  Shall  it  be  asked, 
if  the  invader  arrived — 

' '  '  And  was  there  none — no  Irish  arm, 

lu  whose  veins  the  native  blood  runs  warm  ? 
And  was  there  no  heart  in  the  trampled  land. 
That  spurned  the  oppressor's  proud  command  ? 
Could  the  wronged  realm  no  arm  supply, 
But  the  abject  tear  and  the  slavish  sigh?' 

<*  Why,  yes,  my  lord,  we  are  told  if  we  had  been  servile  and  base 
in  our  language,  and  dastardly  in  our  conduct,  we  should  be  nearer 
success  ;  that  the  '  slavish  tear,'  the  '  abject  sigh,'  would  have  suited 
our  dignity ;  that  had  we  shown  ourselves  pi'one  to  servility  and 
submission,  and  silent  in  oppression,  we  f=hould  advance  our  eman- 
cipation ;  and  that  by  proving,  by  our  words  and  actions,  that  we 
deserve  to  be  slaves — we  should  ensure  liberty." 

We  have  before  quoted  a  newspaper  report  of  the  scene  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  between  the  Hon.  Colonel  Hutchinson, 
and  Mr.  Speaker  Abbott,  on  occasion  of  a  bold  and  emphatic 
denunciation,  by  the  former,  of  the  Legislative  Union  between 
the  two  countries. 

The  Patriot  (the  same  government  newspaper  denounced 
by  Mr.  O'Connell  in  the  speech  last  quoted,  that  of  the  29th 
February)  had,  a  few  days  after  the  latter  date,  an  article  on 
the  subject  referred  to,  containing  some  general  remarks  upon 
Irish  agitation,  which,  if  their  origin  were  not  stated,  might 
well  be  considered  extracts  from  the  columns  of  the  Standard, 
Herald,  Post,  or  Times,  at  the  present  day;  merely  substituting 
"  Repeal  of  the  Union,"  for  "  Catholic  Emancipation." 

There  is  an  especial  similarity  in  the  intolerant  and  intolerable 
insolence  in  which  the  idea  of  concession  is  spoken  of — conces- 
sion subsequently  made — as,  despite   the   present  vapourings,  it 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,  M.P.  153 

will  again  be  made,  sorely  against  the  grain,  to  the  peaceful, 
constitutional,  but  irresistible  movement  of  the  Irish  people. 
The  following  is  the  main  part  of  the  article : — 

"  Could  the  authors,  to  whose  witty  observations  on  the  result  of 
Mr.  Keegan's  aiFair  we  have  already  alluded,  suppose  for  a  moment 
that  all  the  earlier  history  of  that  foolish  business  had  been  entii'ely 
forgotten — that  the  marked  indifference  of  the  Irish  administration, 
when  the  affair  was  first  opened  to  them — the  delay  to  arrest  the 
conspirators,  and  the  anxious  representation  of  the  subject  made  by 
the  Catholics — had  altogether  escaped  recollection,  when  they  ven- 
tured to  charge  the  government  with  the  malicious  design  of  giving 
countenance  to  mock  conspiracies,  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  suspi- 
cion and  disgrace  upon  the  Catholic  body  ?  Could  they  believe  that 
the  most  careless  and  stupid  of  their  readers  would  fail  to  detect  the 
imposition,  or  that  the  most  factious  could  discover  it  without  feeling 
contempt  and  indignation  ? 

"  Now,  that  we  have  alluded  to  the  inaccuracies  and  extravagance 
of  the  Irish  press,  we  beg  leave  to  cite  an  example,  in  which  a 
strange  propensity  to  the  most  foolish  exaggeration  has  been  dis- 
played by  some  of  the  advocates  of  Catholic  emancipation. 

"  Mr.  Hutchinson,  an  Irish  member  of  the  House  of  Commons, 
was  lately  interrupted  by  the  Speaker,  while  descanting  on  Irish 
affairs ;  and  we  feel  assured  that  no  man  who  knows  anything  of  the 
character  of  the  present  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons,  will 
doubt  that  there  must  have  been  good  reasons  for  the  interruption. 
It  is  scarcely  possible  to  conceive  the  furious  indignation  manifested 
by  some  of  the  Irish  writers  on  account  of  this  affair,  which  they 
Avould  fain  represent  as  a  studied  interposition  of  idle  and  unavailing 
formalities,  for  the  wicked  and  corrupt  purposes  of  stifling  the  voice 
of  an  advocate  who  was  about  to  plead  the  cause  of  five  millions  of 
his  fellow-subjects,  before  the  great  national  council!  It  is  much 
their  custom,  indeed,  to  talk  of  round  numbers;  and  this  same  num- 
ber of  five  millions  seems  to  be  a  great  favourite  with  them.  They 
take  infinite  pains,  on  all  occasions,  to  proclaim  to  the  world,  that 
there  are  no  less  than  five  millions  of  Irishuien  resolutely  bent  on 
vindicating  and  maintaining  their  rights  ;  that  is,  on  carrying  the 
question  of  Catholic  Emancipation.  Nov*^,  we  are  quite  aware  that 
the  population  of  Ireland  has,  of  late  years,  made  rapid  progress ; 
and  we  are  not  ignorant  that  the  Catholic  cause  has  also  made  con- 
siderable  advances  with  the  Protestant  population   of  Ireland ;  and 


154  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

yet  we  are  very  much  inclined  to  doubt  whether,  even  at  the  present 
day,  an  advocate  of  Catholic  Emancipation  can,  with  anything  like 
truth,  be  said  to  speak  the  unbiassed  sentiments  of  five  millions  of 
people. 

"  We  may  remind  those  who  make  this  ostentatious  parade  of  the 
numbers  and  resolution  of  the  Catholics — who  seek  to  extort  conces- 
sions from  fear  rather  than  conviction — who  labour  by  the  most  sus- 
picious and  offensive  allusions  to  the  present  state  of  the  country,  and 
the  collected  strength  of  our  foes — that  they  themselves  are,  in 
truth,  the  worst  enemies  of  the  cause  which  they  profess  to  advocate ; 
that  the  government  and  legislature  of  the  British  empire  never 
have,  hitherto,  and,  we  trust,  never  will,  yield  anything  to  menace 
and  violence  ;  and  that  by  persevering  to  desci'ibe  their  own  insolent 
and  seditious  declamations,  as  the  fair  expression  of  the  sentiments  of 
five  millions  of  British  subjects,  they  do  as  much  as  in  them  lies,  to 
induce  a  belief  among  those  who  give  credit  to  theii-  statements,  that 
the  people,  whose  opinions  they  pretend  to  express,  are  totally  dis- 
qualified from  participating  in  the  higher  privilege  of  the  British 
constitution." 

In  the  month  of  May,  this  year,  the  prime  minister,  Mr. 
Perceval,  was  shot,  just  as  he  was  passing  through  the  lobby  of 
the  House  of  Commons,  to  enter  the  house,  shortly  after  the 
commencement  of  its  sitting.  The  history  of  this  tragic  event 
is  too  well  known  to  require  detailing  here,  even  if  it  came 
directly  within  the  scope  of  our  subject.  That  his  death  was 
nearly  instantaneous,  and  that  Bellingham,  his  murderer — a 
man  crazed  by  his  misfortunes,  and  what  he  deemed  intentional 
and  insulting  neglect  of  some  applications  made  by  him  to  the 
ministry — had  none  of  the  mercy  shown  to  him  which,  in  recent 
cases  of  a  similar  nature,  has  been  extended  to  doubtful  insanity, 
but  expiated  his  crime  on  the  scaiFold,  are  matters  of  general 
coo^nizance. 

The  death  of  the  premier  gave  rise,  of  course,  to  a  thousand 
speculations,  anxieties,  hopes  and  fears  in  the  public  mind  in 
both  countries.  Whigs,  Tories,  even  the  then  comparatively- 
insignificant  Radical  party  in  England,  and  the  Orange  and 
Catholic  parties  in  Ireland — each  were  busy  with  their  own 
conjectures,  expectations,  and  doubts. 

The  conduct  of   the   Prince   Regent   had,   indeed,   recently 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  155 

given  strong  grounds  to  the  intolerant  party  to  believe  that  he 
would,  (as  he  speedily  did),  decide  in  their  favour.  When,  by 
the  confirmation  and  confession  of  the  entirely  hopeless  character 
of  his  father's  malady,  the  restrictions  at  first  imposed  upon  the 
authority  of  the  Regent  had  reached  their  term,  he  had,  of  his 
own  accord,  continued  Mr.  Perceval  and  his  colleagues  in  the 
high  offices  they  had  filled  under  his  father  ;  and  from  which,  so 
long  as  any  idea  was  entertained  of  the  old  king's  recovery,  he 
had  affected  to  believe  their  removal  by  him  would  have  been 
considered  an  act  of  filial,  and  almost  disloyal  disrespect. 

That  this  was  but  a  miserable  pretence,  had  been  more  than 
suspected,  when  he  continued  them  in  office,  after  the  expiration 
of  his  restrictions,  and  full  proof  of  its  being  so,  was  soon  to  be 
furnished. 

Delusive,  but  yet  strong  hopes  were  entertained  that,  although 
personal  predelictions  could  scarcely  be  supposed  to  attach  him 
to  Mr.  Perceval,  who  had,  on  more  than  one  occasion,  been  the 
cause  of  mortifications  and  annoyances  to  him  ;  yet,  that  the 
former's  retention  in  office  was  to  be  attributed  to  some  ascen- 
dancy gained  over  the  feeble  mind  of  the  prince ;  and  that  the 
occasion  of  the  minister's  death  would  be  eagerly  seized  upon 
to  prove,  that  in  adopting  the  man,  there  had  been  no  permanent 
adoption  of  his  policy. 

It  may  well  be  conceived  with  what  deep  anxiety  the  Catholics 
in  particular  awaited  the  manifestation  of  his  intentions.  Their 
hopes  had  been  cruelly  handled  hitherto ;  yet  the  sentiments 
which  Moore  has  embodied  in  one  of  his  earlier  melodies — said 
to  have  been  written  with  direct  reference  to  the  feeling's  of  the 
Catholics  at  the  time — still  pervaded  their  minds,  and  made 
them  reluctant  to  anticipate  the  coming  evil: — 

' '  Upon  thy  lip  such  promise  hung, 
I  did  not  dare  to  doubt  thee  ; 
I  saw  thee  change — yet  still  relied, 
Still  clung  with  hope  the  fonder." 

Fond  hope,  indeed,  and  vainest  of  hopes  !  The  miserable, 
false-hearted  voluptuary  was  not  long  in  utterly  destroying  it ; 
nor  was  this  fated  to  be  the  last  time  that  he  was  shamefully  and 
insultingly  to  deceive  and  betray  his  Catholic  subjects ! 

Mr.  Perceval  was  shot  upon  the   11th   of  May,   and  by  the 


156  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

eighth  of  the  succeeding  month,  his  colleagues  in  the  ministry — 
after  a  brief  series  of  negociations  and  intrigues,  possessing  little 
interest  now — were  declared  to  be  permanently  re-seated  in 
office,  to  carry  out  the  same  line  of  anti-liberal  and  anti- Catholic 
policy,  as  when  Mr.  Perceval  presided  over  their  councils. 

Before  coming  to  the  occasions  when  the  deceived  and  cruelly- 
disappointed  Catholics  gave  expression  to  their  feelings  at  these 
occurrences,  we  shall  give  a  speech  of  Mr.  O'Connell's,  prior  in 
date,  relative  to  a  matter  of  importance  to  the  Irish  bar,  which 
had  occurred  just  after  the  spring  circuit  of  1812. 

At  this  time  he  had  already  risen  to  an  eminence  in  his  pro- 
fession, which  fully  entitled  him  to  the  prominent  part  he  took 
in  the  defence  of  its  privileges,  on  the  occasion  we  are  about  to 
allude.  His  professional  income,  which  had  increased  annually 
since  he  had  been  called  to  the  bar,  now  exceeded  £4,000  a 
year,  and  his  business,  whether  in  Dublin  or  on  the  circuits, 
was  the  first  of  any  man  not  connected  with,  and,  therefore, 
not  enjoying  the  special  favour  of  certain  judges,  (of  which 
there  were  several  instances  at  the  time),  nor  advanced  to  a  silk 
gown. 

The  latter  was  undoubtedly  Mr.  O'Connell's  right,  and  had 
been  so  for  three  or  four  years,  so  far  as  legal  merits  could 
deserve  it.  But  the  obstacle,  of  course  existed,  of  that  portion 
of  the  Catholic  disabilities  which  pressed  upon  members  of  that 
communion  engaged  in  the  legal  profession  ;  and  even  had  it 
not,  the  Irish  government,  in  that  and  preceding,  as  for  many  a 
succeeding  year,  would  have  sedulously  excluded  him  from  all 
promotion,  because  of  his  adherence  to  the  cause  of  his  country. 
In  fact,  if  any  justice  had  been  done  him,  he  should  have  had 
a  patent  of  precedence  to  which  no  legal  obstacle  existed. 

Although  a  digression  from  our  subject,  we  may  be  allowed 
here  to  introduce  some  anecdotes  of  his  bar  career  acceptable  to 
the  general  reader. 

It  is  the  fashion  to  call  the  bar  a  "liberal"  profession. 
Undoubtedly,  all  occupations,  which  tend  to  call  out  and  employ 
the  powers  of  the  mind,  have  a  prima  facie  title  to  the  designa- 
tion in  question.  Yet  that  the  legal  profession  docs  eminently, 
or  much — we  had  almost  said  at  all — tend  to  liberalise  the  mind, 
is,  at  best,  most  exceedingly  doubtful.     Nay,   it  is  an   opinion, 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  157 

not  without  strontr  and  reasonable  foundation,  that  the  hair- 
spUtting  dexterity — the  microscopic  keenness  required  by  him 
who  would  successfully  thread  the  law's  intricacies,  directly 
operates  to  injure  the  mind,  and  impair  its  powers  of  taking  a 
large  and  comprehensive  view  of  the  great  problems  in  debate 
among  mankind. 

Eminent  legal  distinction  has,  indeed,  been  achieved ;  high 
office  in  the  state  has  been  won  by  the  barrister  class  ;  but  how 
few  are  there,  among  all  the  names  of  eminent  legal  men  of 
past  and  present  times,  who  have  rendered  service  to  humanity, 
either  in  the  achievement  of  social  and  political  ameliorations, 
or  in  the  enlargement  and  exploration  of  the  vast  fields  of  mental 
inquiry  and  enlightenment  ?  On  the  contrary,  how  many,  what 
an  overwhelming  multitude  of  names  could  be  cited  from  among 
them,  of  men  who  have  basely  truckled  to  power,  and  pandered 
with  their  talents  and  acquirements  to  all  the  tyrannous  fancies 
of  a  monarch,  or  a  party.  Never  monarch  sought  to  extend 
the  grasp  of  prerogative — never  dominant  faction  in  the  state 
sought  to  crush  down  still  more,  and  trample  in  the  mire,  the 
people's  liberties — but  he  or  they  found  ever  the  readiest  tool, 
ever  the  most  unscrupulous  and  most  efficient  agent  in  the 
eminent  lawyer,  whether  clothed  in  what  has  been,  with  a 
cruel  mockery,  styled  the  stainless  ermine  of  the  bench,  or  yet 
contending  in  the  forensic  arena.  If  this  has  been  the  case, 
most  indisputably  in  England,  how  much  more  so  in  Ireland, 
where,  for  ages,  down  to  the  present  day,  the  rewards  of  talent 
have  been  held  in  the  hands,  and  dispensed  at  the  corrupt  will 
of  a  government  alien  to  the  land,  and  hostile  to  its  people. 

Within  the  forty-five  years  of  the  present  century  alone,  this 
patronage  has  been  most  fearfully  abused,  and  as  a  conse- 
quence, some  of  the  worst  instances  of  judicial  perjury  and 
barrister  servility  have  occurred  within  that  period. 

We  are  not  to  be  understood  as  desiring  to  make  any  appli- 
cation of  those  remarks  to  the  present  grave  and  learned 
occupants  of  the  bench  ;  and  most  certainly  there  are  among 
them  those  upon  whom  any  comment  should  be  one  of  praise. 

The  Irish.^bar  of  the  present  day  has,  within  the  last  two 
years,  been  a  good  deal  redeemed  by  the  spirit  of  nationality 
which  has  begun   to  manifest  itself  among   them.     But  at   the 


158  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

period  of  Mr.  O'Connell's  life  with  which  we  are  now  engaged, 
the  state  of  things  was  as  bad  as  could  be  with  the  bench 
and  the  bar.  Ignorance,  insolence,  and  tyranny  with  the  one, 
and  corruption  and  servility  with  the  other,  added  to  and  aggra- 
vated the  crowd  of  hideous  evils  beneath  which  this  country  was 
groaning. 

Mr.  O'Connell,  from  the  outset,  had  determined  that  what- 
ever might  happen,  the  charge  of  servility  should  not  attach  to 
him.  That  of  corruption  he  never  dreamed  of  the  possibility  of 
incurring.  To  secure  himself  from  the  only  one  that  could  be 
possible,  he  early  adopted,  and  throughout  his  forensic  career, 
maintained  the  most  entire  and  fearless  independence  in  dealing 
with  the  judges,  as  with  all  whose  favour  and  good  will  could  at 
all  be  considered  an  object  of  importance  to  him.  A  practice 
(according  to  all  accounts,  by  no  means  obsolete  in  the  present 
day)  then  obtained,  among  a  large  proportion  of  the  bar,  of  pay- 
ing marked  court  to  the  attorneys,  with  a  view  of  getting 
business  from  them. 

He,  however,  although  ever  disposed  to  treat,  with  due  con- 
sideration, that  class  of  gentlemen — in  Ireland  so  eminent  for 
talent  and  high  respectability — rather  erred  on  the  side  of 
uncourteousness  to  them,  while  practising,  than  on  the  oppo- 
site, through  the  same  desire  of  maintaining  his  entire  indepen- 
dence. Against  any  violation  of  the  Bench  of  the  rights  and 
privileges  of  the  bar,  he  was  always  bold  and  zealous,  especially 
in  the  cases  of  young  and  timid  beginners  at  the  profession,  who 
might  be  frightened  by  the  brow-beating  of  a  judge.  In  this 
respect  he  was  useful  to  several  barristers,  his  juniors,  amongst 
others,  to  the  late  J.  Martley,  Esq.,  when  he  had  been  but  a 
short  time  at  his  profession. 

This  incident  took  place  some  years  later  than  that  at  which 
we  are  arrived  in  this  memoir ;  but  neither  with  reference  to 
this,  or  the  other  anecdotes  here  inserted,  have  we  thought  it 
necessary  to  observe  the  strict  order  of  occurrence,  but  rather 
to  note  them  down  as  they  arose  to  memory. 

Mr.  Martley  had  risen,  in  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas,  to 
make  his  first  motion,  and,  naturally  enough,  showed  some 
signs  of  timidity  and  hesitation.  The  late  Judge  Johnson,  who 
was  one  of  the  judges  before  whom  he  had  thus  presented  him- 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  159 

self,  appeared  to  listen  to  him  with  considerable  impatience  and 
ill-humour,  and  two  or  three  times  interrupted  him  unnecessarily 
and  very  ungraciously.  In  this  he  was  seconded  violently  by 
Lord  Norbury,  and  the  result  was,  that  the  young  man,  though 
possessing  first-rate  talent,  became  still  more  confused  and 
embarrassed,  and  seemed  in  a  fair  way  to  be  entirely  put  down 
and  silenced. 

At  this  moment  the  subject  of  our  memoir  entered  the  court, 
and  briefly  gathering  the  particulars  of  what  had  occurred, 
instantly  addressed  himself  to  several  members  of  the  inner  bar, 
and  urged  them  to  interfere.  One  and  all  they  declined,  on 
various  pretexts ;  and  seeing  that  he  could  obtain  no  help  from 
those  whose  higher  professional  rank  might  be  expected  to  give 
more  weight  with  the  judges,  to  a  remonstrance  against  their 
conduct,  he  determined,  at  all  hazards,  to  interfere  himself. 

Accordingly  he  rose,  and  at  once  addressed  the  bench  : — 

"  My  lords,  I  submit  to  your  lordships,  that  Mr.  Martley  is 
entitled  to  be  fully  heard.  He  has  a  duty  to  discharge  to  his 
client ;  and  it  is  not  fair  or  right  that  he  should  be  impeded  in 
the  discharge  of  that  duty.  I  have  not  the  pleasure  of  knowing 
Mr.  Martley  ;  but  I  cannot  sit  quietly  by,  and  see  a  brother 
barrister  treated  in  this  manner." 

"  Oh,  Mr.  O'Connell,  we  have  heard  Mr.  Martley,"  said 
Lord  Norbury  ;  "  and  we  cannot  have  the  time  of  the  court  any 
longer  wasted." 

"  Pardon  me,  my  lord,  you  have  not  heard  him.  The  young 
gentleman  has  not  been  allowed  to  explain  his  case ;  which,  I 
am  quite  sure,  he  is  perfectly  competent  to  do,  if  he  be  allowed 
the  opportunity." 

"  Mr.  O'Connell,"  said  Judge  Johnson,  with  considerable 
austerity  of  tone  and  manner  ;  "  are  you  engaged  in  this  case, 
that  you  presume  to  interfere  ?" 

"  No,  my  lord,  I  am  not;  but  I  stand  up  here  for  the  privi- 
leges of  the  bar ;  and  I  will  not  submit  to  see  them  violated, 
either  in  my  own  person,  or  in  that  of  any  other  member  of  the 
profession " 

"  Well,  well — well,  well,"  rejoined  Lord  Norbury ;  "  we'll 
hear  Mr.  Martley,  we'll  hear  Mr.  Martley ;  sit  down,  Mr. 
O'Connell." 


160  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

The  command  was  of  course  at  once  obeyed,  the  desired  point 
being  carried ;  and  Mr,  Martley,  getting  fair  play,  stated  his 
case  so  ably,  that  his  motion  was  at  once  granted. 

From  this  first  opportunity  he  rose,  in  after  years,  to  consi- 
derable business  in  his  profession,  and  died,  a  few  years  ago,  a 
Queen's  Counsel,  and  Assistant-Barrister  for  the  East  Riding  of 
the  county  of  Cork.  Throughout  his  life  he  retained  a  lively 
sense  of  Mr.  O'Connell's  services  upon  this  occasion. 

There  is  a  story  relative  to  his  conduct  in  the  case  of  the  late 
Sir  William  M'Mahon,  Master  of  the  Rolls,  which  will  appro- 
priately come  in  here. 

For  the  first  circuits  after  that  gentleman  had  been  called  to 
the  bar,  he  appeared  unknown  to  every  one,  and  several  of  the 
leaders  of  the  circuit  had,  on  various  occasions  treated  him  with 
marked  slight.  Mr.  O'Connell's  conduct  was  very  different. 
Of  Mr.  M'Mahon,  (as  of  course  he  was  then,)  or  his  family,  he 
knew  nothing ;  nor  was  there  private,  as  of  course  there  was  no 
professional  reason  why  he  should  affect  his  acquaintance ;  but 
he  saw  a  modest,  unoffending  young  man,  wantonly  ill-treated, 
and,  as  it  were,  put  in  Coventry,  for  no  fault  but,  perhaps,  want 
of  sufficient  assurance ;  and  he  exerted  himself,  as  far  as  lay 
in  his  power,  to  encourage  the  young  man,  and  procure  him 
proper  consideration.  Suddenly  the  conduct  which  had  been 
generally  observed  towards  the  latter  upon  the  circuit  became 
altered.  Where,  before,  civil  contempt  was  the  only  feeling 
manifested,  a  desire  of  paying  marked  attention  began  to  be 
displayed,  which  would  have  been  very  astonishing,  were  not  the 
cause  easily  traceable.  It  was  this : — Colonel  M'Mahon's 
intimacy  with  the  Prince  Regent  had  recently  attracted  con- 
siderable attention  from  the  occurrence,  of  several  instances, 
which  showed  that  his  advantages  were  not  limited  to  the  honour  of 
beino"  intimate  with  one  who  was  a  king  in  power,  though  not  in 
name.  At  once  the  perspective  opened  on  men's  minds,  of  the  good 
thino-s  in  store  for  his  brother  at  the  bar;  as  also  of  what  might  fall 
to  the  lot  of  those  who  should  chance  to  get  into  favour  with  the 
latter.  Accordingly,  he  who  had  been  hitherto  neglected,  and 
almost  insulted,  speedilyfound  himself  the  object  of  pressing  atten- 
tions at  the  hands  of  the  very  men  who  had  before  slighted 
him. 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  161 

This  change  of  his  estimation,  in  the  minds  of  his  professional 

brethren,  was  first  most  distinctly  manifested  during  the 

circuit  of The  Munster  bar  (to  which  he  belonged) 

were  attending  the  Limerick  assizes  of  that  circuit,  when 
Mr.  O'Connell,  who  had  been  detained  late  in  court,  entered  the 
mess-room  a  few  minutes  before  dinner  was  served,  and 
approached  a  group  near  the  fire.  To  his  astonishment,  he 
found  a  pair  of  slippers  placed  there  within  the  fender,  and 
apparently  carefully  watched  by  several  of  those  who  stood  near. 
Rather  indignantly  asking  on  whose  account  this  breach  of  the 
common  decencies  of  a  dining-room  was  committed,  a  leader  of 
the  circuit  cried  out  to  him  not  to  touch  them,  that  they  belonged 
to  Mr.  M'Mahon.  This  answer  by  no  means  appeased  him; 
and,  pushing  the  offending  slippers  away  with  his  foot,  he  desired 
the  mess-waiter  to  remove  them  at  once. 

At  this  moment  Mr.  M'Mahon  himself  entered  the  room,  and 
Mr.  O'Connell  going  up  to  him,  mentioned  what  had  occurred; 
adding,  that  "  Mr.  M'Mahon  might  judge  from  his  (Mr.  O'Con- 
nell's)  constant  bearing  towards  him,  when  those  who  were  fawn- 
ing now  had  been  utterly  neglectful  of  him,  that  there  was  no 
intention  to  offer  a  wanton  offence,  in  causing  the  slippers  to  be 
removed."  Mr.  M'Mahon  at  once  declared  that  Mr.  O'Connell 
had  acted  perfectly  right ;  and  expressed  his  regret  at  the  origin 
of  the  affair. 

While  touching  on  a  few  events  of  the  legal  career  of  the 
subject  of  this  sketch,  another  anecdote  of  a  different,  and  of  a 
ludicrous  character,  will  give  an  idea  of  his  success  in  the  defence 
of  prisoners : — 

It  had  fallen  to  his  lot,  at  an  assizes  in  Cork,  to  be  retained 
for  a  man  on  trial  for  an  aggravated  case  of  highway  robbery. 
By  an  able  cross-examination  he  was  enabled  to  procure  the  man's 
acquittal.  The  following  year,  at  the  assizes  for  the  same  town, 
he  found  himself  again  retained  for  the  same  individual,  then  in 
trial  for  a  burglary,  committed  with  great  violence,  very  little 
short  of  a  deliberate  attempt  to  murder.  On  this  occasion,  the 
result  of  Mr.  O'Connell's  efforts  was  a  disagreement  of  the  jury  ; 
and,  therefore,  no  verdict.  The  government  witnesses  having 
been  entirely  discredited  during  the  cross-examination,  the  case 
was  pursued  no  farther,  and  the  prisoner  was  discharged. 

M 


162  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

Again,  the  succeeding  year,  he  was  found  in  the  crimina. 
dock  ;  this  time  on  a  charge  of  piracy  !  He  had  run  away  with 
a  collier  brig,  and  having  found  means  of  disposing  of  a  portion 
of  her  cargo,  and  afterwards  supplying  himself  with  some  arms, 
he  had  actually  commenced  cruising  on  his  own  account,  levying 
contributions  from  such  vessels  as  he  chanced  to  fall  in  with. 
Having  "  caught  a  Tartar,"  while  engaged  in  this  profitable 
occupation,  he  was  brought  into  Cove,  and  thence  sent  up  to 
Cork  to  stand  his  trial  for  "  piracy  on  the  high  seas." 

Again  Mr.  O'Connell  saved  him,  by  demurring  to  the  juris- 
diction of  the  court — the  offence  having  been  committed  within 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  admiralty,  and,  therefore,  cognizable  only 
before  an  admiralty  court. 

When  the  fellow  saw  his  successful  counsel  passing  the  dock 
where  he  stood  to  leave  the  place,  he  stretched  over  to  speak  to 
him,  and,  raising  his  eyes  and  hands  most  piously  and  fervently  to 
,  heaven,  he  cried  out — "  Oh,  may  the  Lord  spare  you — to  me  /" 

Believing  that  our  readers  will  pardon  the  digression,  if  so  it 
can  be  called,  which  we  have  made,  we  now  return  to  our  col- 
lection of  speeches. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  gentlemen  of  the  bar,  held  on  Saturday, 
May  30,  1812,  Mr.  O'Connell  delivered  the  following  speech,  as 
reported  in  t\ie  Dublin  Everting  Post  of  Thursday,  June  4,1812: — 

"  He  said  that  having  had  the  honour  of  being  called  to  the  chair  at 
the  small  meeting  of  the  bar  which  had  occurred  in  the  vacation,  he 
felt  it  to  be  his  duty  to  state  the  object  of  those  who  called  that 
meeting,  and  had  adjourned  to  the  present  day  for  the  convenience 
of  the  bar  at  large.  The  facts  were,  simply  and  without  comment, 
these  : — Shortly  after  the  last  circuit,  Mr.  Verner  Moore  had  pub- 
lished, in  the  newspapers,  a  statement  purporting  to  detail  a 
transaction  which  he  asserted  to  have  occurred  at  the  last  assizes  of 
Omagh.  It  purported,  as  far  as  it  went,  to  be  the  report  of  a  trial 
that  had  taken  place  in  the  public  com't-house,  as  personally 
interested  Mr.  Moore ;  it  was  addressed  to  the  Irish  bar,  and  for  the 
truth  of  the  statement,  Mr.  Moore  solemnly  pledged  himself.  It 
appears  that,  shortly  after,  the  benchers,  as  they  are  called,  of  the 
King's  Inns,  had  a  meeting ;  they  summoned  Mr.  Moore  before 
them  ;  they  required  to  know  if  he  were  the  author  of  the  publication 
in  question  ;  be  admitted  the  fact — he  went  further — he  admitted  that 


DANIEL    O  CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  163 

the  mode  of  publication  of  his  complaint,  in  a  newspaper,  was  an 
improper  one  ;  but  he  again  repeated  his  solemn  assertion  of  the 
truth  of  what  he  had  published,  and  offered  to  prove,  beyond  any 
doubt,  its  perfect  accuracy.  He  was  then  dismissed ;  and  the 
benchers  who  had,  before  his  personal  examination,  deliberated  in 
private,  resumed  their  private  sittings,  and  the  result  was,  a  vote 
of  the  severest  censure  on  Mr.  Moore  ;  and  another  vote,  that  the 
censure  should  be  read  publicly  in  all  the  courts,  on  the  first  day  of 
the  present  term.  Such  were  the  facts.  It  stood  thus  : — Mr.  Moore 
had  published  a  report  of  a  trial,  or  part  of  a  trial ;  if  what  he  stated 
was  true,  misconduct  of  no  ordinary  kind  was  attributable  to  one  of 
the  benchers  in  the  exercise  of  his  public  duty. 

*'  The  bench,  including  the  personage  thus  accused,  meet.    They  do 
not  investigate  the  facts ;  they  are  incompetent  to  investigate  any 
facts  ;  their  meeting  is  held  in  secret,  and  they  inflict  punishment  for 
the  publication  of  that  which  they  do  not  accuse  to  be  a  falsehood. 
Upon  this  subject  he  would  not,  for  the  present,  give  any  opinion  ; 
although  he  should  be  sorry  any  one  supposed  he  had  not  formed  a 
distinct  opinion  on  it.     But  he  would,  for  the  present,  concede  that 
Mr.  Moore  was  guilty  of  some  offence  that  deserved  punishment. 
The  question  was,  whether  the  benchers  had  any  jurisdiction  over 
the  offence.     It  was  a  question  of  great  importance  to  the  bar  in 
every  point  of  view.     Their  property,  their  characters,  their  honour, 
were  all  involved  in  its  consideration.     No  man  could  well  consider 
himself  safe  in  his  professional  pursuits,  if  any  body  of  men  assem- 
bled in  a  private  chamber,  without  power  to  administer  an  oath,  or 
examine  into  a  disputed  fact ;  without  form  of  indictment  or  mode  of 
pleading  ;  without  allowing  the  advantage  of  counsel,  or  showing  the 
groiinds   of  decision,  were  entitled  to  vote  away  the  profession  and 
the  reputation  of  the  Irish  gentlemen  who  belong  to  the  bar.      These 
were  alarming  considerations  ;  he  was  ready  to  admit  the  respectabi- 
lity of  the  persons  who  composed  this   secret   tribunal ;  it  was  not 
against  the  individuals  he  complained,  it  was  against  the  existence 
of  the  thing  itself.     He  could  not  see  any,  the  least  necessity  for  its 
existence.      The  Jx'ish  bar  composed,  he  was  convinced,  the  first 
profession  in  the  world ;  it  required  no  inquisitorial  power  to  keep 
it  within  the  bounds  of  the  strictest  propriety — nay,  it  possessed  the 
most  certain    method  of  repressing   misconduct   amongst   its   own 
members,  by  the  moral  force  of  its  own  high  character.     The  man 
who  conducted  himself  in  a  manner  unbecoming  a  gentleman  would 
shrink   abashed   from   their   society,  or,   if  he  haunted   the  hall,  he 


\ 


164  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

would  be  seen  to  glide  through  it  despised  and  unnoticed,  and 
solitary  in  the  midst  of  a  crowd  ;  and  if  greater  delinquency  should 
be  found,  it  would  meet  with  exclusion  and  expulsion  from  the  entii'e 
society,  who  were  alone  capable  to  exclude,  but  who  could  never 
conspire  against  an  individual.  This  inquisitorial  power  could  not 
be  necessary  for  the  protection  of  the  judges  ;  it  was  ludicrous  to 
suppose  that  it  could  ;  the  judges  were  armed  with  abundant  power 
for  their  own  protection — they  could  commit  to  the  dock,  they  could 
force,  they  could  imprison  at  their  own  discretion,  almost  at  their 
caprice,  for  the  slightest  disrespect.  All  these  powers  existed,  and 
were  I'ecognized  by  the  law  ;  nay  more,  they  were  all  absolutely  ne- 
cessaiy  for  the  due  administration  of  justice.  To  diminish  any  one  of 
them  would  be  to  render  it  diificult,  perhaps  impossible  to  do  justice 
effectually  between  angry  litigants  ;  but  those  powers  have  been,  by 
experience,  found  amply  sufficient  for  that  purpose.  When,  how- 
ever, there  is  added  to  this,  the  natural  effect  which  the  disfavour  of 
the  judge  must  have  upon  the  success  of  any  individual  barrister,  it 
would  be  seen  at  once  how  luinecessary  further  securities  were  ; 
there  was  even  danger  of  the  other  extreme  and  servility  to  the 
bench,  to  which  poor  human  nature  afforded  so  many  temptations, 
could  be  guarded  against  only  by  the  high-mindedness  of  educated 
gentlemen,  who  rather  condescended  to  belong  to  a  profession,  than 
to  be  the  slaves  of  its  emoluments.  Without  the  independence  produced 
by  this  spirit,  it  would  be  impossible  to  be  honest  as  an  advocate  ;  for 
that  advocate  is  not  honest  who,  for  his  own  sake,  shrinks  from  the 
manly  assertion  of  his  client's  rights,  whatever  may  chance  to  be  the 
impressions  of  the  bench  against  it ;  but  at  the  Irish  bar,  where  the 
very  soul  of  honour  was  to  be  found,  there  was  no  danger  of  any  tone 
being  adopted  but  that  which  would  dignify  individuals  and  exalt  a 
profession.  It  may,  perhaps,  be  said,  that  although  it  is  clear  that 
the  judges  had  sufficient  means  of  making  their  authority  respected 
in  court,  yet,  that  they  wanted  further  grounds  for  contempts  com- 
mitted out  of  court,  and  the  case  of  publication  of  a  false  and  libellous 
account  of  a  trial  might  be  sustained.  But  this  he  was  ready  to  deny, 
because  there  existed  already  abundant  means  of  punishment  for  such 
contempts.  There  were  attachments,  informations,  ex-officio  or  by 
rule  of  court,  indictments,  and  actions. 

"  Now,  for  example,  this  Mr.  Moore  might  have  been  proceeded 
against  in  any  of  these  ways  if  his  publication  were  false.  To  an 
action  he  was  liable,  but  there  the  truth  would  be  a  justification.  An 
attachment  or  an  information,  by  rule  of  court,  might  be  obtained 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P,  165 

against  him  ;  but  then  an  affidavit  must  be  made  of  the  falsehood  of 
his  statement,  and  he  who  swore  the  affidavit  might  be  prosecuted  in 
his  turn ;  so  the  information  ex-officio,  render  truth  or  falsehood, 
immaterial ;  but  in  a  case  of  this  kind,  a  jury  would,  in  law,  as 
well  as  in  fact,  be  bound  to  acquit,  if  the  publication  where  proved  to 
be  an  unexaggerated  statem^ent  of  what  had  occurred  at  the  former 
trial.  It  only  remains  then  to  see  whether  any  person  will  be  found 
sufficiently  enough  to  deny,  that  this  tribunal,  called  the  benchers, 
was  calculated  to  punish  for  the  publication  of  the  truth — of  the 
truth  of  what  occurred  in  the  presence  of  the  public — in  a  public 
court — at  a  public  trial.  It  would  be  grossly  to  calumniate  the 
respectable  personages  who  composed  that  body,  to  assert  that  such 
was  the  jurisdiction  they  sought  to  exercise.  It  was  important  first  to 
consider  of  the  necessity  of  this  species  of  tribunal  before  any 
discussion  arose  as  to  the  legality  of  its  jurisdiction  ;  because  if  it 
could  be  shown  to  him  that  such  a  jurisdiction  was  necessary  for 
either  the  honour  of  the  judges,  or  the  convenience  of  the  suitors,  he 
should  not  be  very  scrupulous  in  investigating  its  origin,  on  the 
foundation  of  its  authority.  But  being  deeply  impressed  with  the 
conviction,  that  the  contrary  was  the  fact — that  this  tribunal  was 
unnecessary — that,  of  itself,  and  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  best  of  men, 
it  was  unconstitutional  and  dangerous — that  its  immediate  effect 
must  be  to  crush  the  spirit  and  independence  of  the  bar,  and  to  convert 
an  honourable  and  liberal  profession  into  mere  retailers  of  chicane,  and 
servile  slaves  of  authority.  "With  this  impi-ession  upon  his  mind,  he 
must  solemnly  protest  against  every  exercise  of  power  by  this 
tribunal,  even  against  a  guilty  individual,  and  conjure  the  bar,  at 
once  to  ascertain  'their  rights,  and  to  trace  the  limits  of  this  juris- 
diction, so  that  it  may  be  either  ascertained  to  be  a  mere  usurpation,  or 
if  it  have  a  legal  existence,  that  parliament  may  be  resorted  to  for  its 
abolition.  For  his  part,  he  had  given  the  subject  all  the  attention  in 
his  power  ;  he  had  investigated  all  the  sources  of  information  on 
this  subject,  and  he  had  convinced  himself,  that  the  benchers  of  the 
King's  Inns  had  no  legitimate  authority  over  the  Irish  bar.  As 
a  legal  or  corporate  body,  it  was  clear,  upon  their  own  confession, 
that  they  had  no  existence.  In  the  late  case  which  they  had 
instituted  in  Chancery  against  a  Mr.  Caldbeck,  an  objection  was 
taken  to  their  legal  capacity  to  sue ;  to  this  objection  they  had 
submitted,  and  their  incapacity  to  exercise  corporate  functions  was, 
therefore,  matter  of  record.  Prescriptive  rights  they  could  claim 
none ;  their  history  was  modern  and  well  known  ;   charter  they  had 


166  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

at  present  none  ;  about  sixteen  years  ago  they  obtained  one,  with  an 
act  of  parliament  to  confirm  it ;  but  this  act,  which  had  passed  sub 
silentio,  having  been  discovered,  the  bar  remonstrated,  and  in  the 
ensuing  sessions  the  statute  and  charter  were  repealed.  Such  was 
the  short  history  of  this  formidable  tribunal ;  it  had  no  chartered 
rights,  no  powers  by  statute,  no  claim  to  prescriptive  authority.  It 
was,  indeed,  mentioned  in  two  or  more  statutes,  but  merely  to  qualify 
it  to  take  land  for  the  purposes  of  buildings.  Statutes  that,  so  far  from 
admitting  its  general  corporate  capacity,  were  direct  evidence  that 
none  such  was  in  existence. 

"  But  he  might  be  told,  that  although  the  foundation  of  its  authority 
could  not  be  clearly  ascertained,  yet  that  facts  proved  its  existence  ; 
and,  in  the  absence  of  argument,  precedents  might  be  resorted  to,  a 
thing  not  unusual.  There  were,  indeed,  four  instances  of  interference 
by  the  benchers  with  the  bar  ;  four  instances  in  which  men  had 
been  struck  out  of  the  barristers'  roll  upon  their  recommendation. 
In  the  two  first,  the  cases  of  School  and  Brody,  the  profession  had 
been  disgraced  by  the  commission  of  the  crime,  he  believed,  of 
perjury.  The  indignant  Ii'ish  bar  rejoiced  at  the  expulsion  of  such 
men,  and  cared  little  by  whom  they  were  kicked  out  of  the  hall. 
The  other  two  instances  were  those  of  Messrs.  Arthur  O'Connor  and 
Thomas  Addis  Emmett.  Those  gentlemen  had,  in  the  year  1799, 
been,  upon  a  similar  recommendation,  disbarred.  But  it  should  be 
recollected  that  they  first  stood  convicted,  upon  their  own  confession, 
of  being  traitors — that  they  had  forfeited  their  lives  to  the  laws,  and 
had  actually,  upon  an  agreement  with  government,  submitted  to 
perpetual  banishment.  When  he  spoke  of  the  crimes  of  those 
gentlemen,  he  could  not  but  express  the  regret  he  felt  at  mentioning 
the  name  of  one  of  them,  with  whom  he  had  once  the  pleasure  to  be 
personally  acquainted.  Whatever  might  have  been  the  political 
crimes  of  Mr.  Emmett,  those  who  knew  him  were  bound  to  say,  that 
a  more  worthy  gentleman,  in  private  life,  never  lived.  But  having 
abjured  the  realm,  the  benchers  exercised  the  superfluous  loyalty  of 
getting  them  excluded  from  the  list  of  Irish  barristers.  No  person 
was  interested  to  inquire  into  the  authority  by  which  so  immaterial  a 
result  had  been  produced.  Such  are  the  precedents — the  only 
precedents  that  can  be  alleged.  What  do  they  prove  ?  Just  nothing. 
But,  perhaps,  I  am  mistaken  ;  perhaps  this  jux'isdiction  does  exist ; 
you  may  not  be  willing,  and  you  ought  not  to  submit  to  act  upon  my 
researches  ;  yet  I  hope  I  have  said  enough  to  convince  you,  that  an 
inquiry  ought  to  be  instituted,  and  that  every  man  at  the  Irish  bar 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  167 

may  know,  upon  what  footing  the  preservation  of  his  professional 
property  and  personal  honour  stands.  This  inquiry  should  be  con- 
ducted in  the  most  respected  manner ;  no  offence  will  be  taken  where 
none  is  intended ;  we  would  be  bound  to  make  the  inquiry  at  every  risk  ; 
but,  in  truth,  the  benchers  themselves  are  ready  to  concede  much  to 
the  general  feeling  of  the  bar.  To  this  feeling  they  have  already 
sacrificed  the  resolution  to  publish  their  censure  of  Mr.  Moore.  If 
the  bar  declares  its  conviction  that  no  such  inquisitorial  authority 
does,  in  point  of  law,  and  that  none  such,  in  point  of  fact, 
ought  to  exist,  we  shall  never  again  hear  of  the  cause  of  our  present 
alarm. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  moved,  '  that  a  committee,  consisting  of  three  of 
the  gentlemen  of  the  bar,  be  appointed  to  ascertain  the  [authority  of 
the  benchers,  either  to  censure  or  disbar  a  barrister.'  " 

The  benchers  not  only  gave  no  redress  in  the  matter  dwelt 
upon  in  the  foregoing  speech,  but  were  guilty  of  the  additional 
arrogance  and  injustice  of  not  paying  even  so  much  attention  to 
the  bar-remonstrance,  as  to  acknowledge  having  received  it.* 

We  are  now  come  to  the  first  general  manifestation  of  feeling 
on  the  part  of  the  Catholics,  upon  the  disappointment  of  their 
hopes,  after  the  assassination  of  Mr.  Perceval.  The  extent  and 
nature  of  that  disappointment  will  be  best  gathered  from  Mr. 
O'Connell's  speech.  It  was  at  this  meeting  that  the  resolutions 
were  passed,  known  in  the  records  of  Catholic  agitation  as  the 
"  xoitchery"  resolutions.  In  the  third  resolution  of  the  statement 
we  give  of  them,  will  be  found  the  allusion  that  supplied  the 
designation.  It  refers  to  the  shameful  entanglement  of  the 
Prince  Regent  with  Lady  Hertford — an  entanglement,  by 
means  of  which,  influence  was  exerted  over  him  to  entirely 
destroy  what  remnant  of  honour  and  good  feeling  there  was  yet 
in  his  cold  and  selfish  heart. 

The  allusion  gave  great  offence,  not  only  in  the  quarter  for 
which  it  was  intended,  but  also  to  many  of  the  timorous  or 
deceitful  "  friends,"  as  they  called  themselves,  but  gracious 
patrons,  as  they  in  fact  assumed  to  be,  of  the  Catholics.  By 
them  it  was  strongly  reprobated ;  but  the  bold  and  singularly- 
able  compiler  of  these  resolutions,  Denis  Scully,  cared  little  for 

*  In  the  Appendix  will  be  found  a  squib,  relating  to  these  occurrences,  writ- 
ten by  Charles  Phillips,  and  much  circulated  at  the  time. 


168  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

the  offence,  when  seeking  to  give  vent  and  expression  to  the 
mortified  and  indignant  feelings  of  himself  and  follows. 

The  Donoughmore  family,  then  true  to  Ireland — as  one  of 
them  has  again  recently  proved  himself — were  not  amongst 
those  who  disapproved  of  this  semi-declaration  of  rupture  with 
the  Prince  Regent,  and  their  approbation  of  it  was  an  additional 
reason  for  persisting. 

The  meeting  took  place  at  Fishamble-street  Theatre,  on 
Thursday,  June  18,  1812 — Lord  Fingal,  as  usual,  in  the  chair. 
After  some  preliminary  matters,  Mr.  Hussey  rose,  and  gave  an 
account  of  the  proceedings  of  the  gentlemen  who  had  been  sent 
to  London  on  the  part  of  the  Catholics.  He  stated,  that  on 
applying  for  a  personal  interview  with  his  Royal  Highness  the 
Prince  Regent,  they  received  a  blunt  refusal,  and  were  informed 
by  Mr.  Secretary  Ryder,  that  the  address  to  his  Highness,  with 
which  they  were  charged,  should  be  presented  at  one  of  his 
public  levees,  "  in  the  usual  way." 

Of  course  there  was  no  option  but  to  submit ;  and,  accord- 
ingly, the  address  was  so  presented,  and  received,  too,  "  in  the 
usual  way"  of  most  addresses  presented  on  such  occasions,  viz. : 
the  announcement  of  its  purport  and  origin  being  all  that  was 
allowed  to  be  stated,  and  then  the  document  itself  being  handed 
over  to  the  tender  care  and  entire  forgetfulness  of  one  of  the 
lords  in  waiting. 

"  His  Royal  Highness,"  said  Mr.  Hussey,  "  was  not  pleased  to 
make  any  communication  on  the  subject  to  the  Committee. 
What  impression  was  made  upon  his  mind  was  not  known ;  what 
he  felt,  what  he  thought  are  left  to  conjecture  (it  was  not  long 
left  a  matter  of  mere  conjecture) ;  but  this  melancholy  fact  is 
sufficiently  understood,  that  his  Royal  Highness  did  not  think  fit 
to  offer  any  recommendation  to  parliament  upon  the  subject ; 
and  it  is  notorious,  that  the  minister  seemed  to  have  acquired 
new  zeal  in  propagating  his  old  insinuations  against  the  Catholic 
people,  and  in  repeating  his  old  experiment  against  religious 
liberty." 

Mr.  Hussey  went  on  to  state,  that  a  personal  interview  had, 
indeed,  been  offered  to  the  Earl  of  Fingal,  in  his  right  as  a 
peer;  but  that  his  lordship  had  conceived  he  ought  not  to  avail 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,  ESQ.,  M.P.  169 

"himself  of  the  privilege,  so  as  to  have  any  interview,  or  occasion 
for  acting,  without  the  full  knowledge  and  co-operation  of  the 
gentlemen  v/ho  had  been  appointed  to  accompany  him  on  his 
mission. 

"  Every  artifice,  (continued  Mr.  Hussey,)  every  hostility  was 
used  by  the  administration  and  its  adherents,  against  the 
Catholic  petition  to  parliament.  The  same  cry  was  raised  ivhich 
gave  them  in  England  the  value  of  popidarity  at  their  outset;  and 
in  every  street  loe  were  met  hy  placards  from  various  debating 
societies,  that  tlie  question  to  be  argued  was,  would  not  the 
emancipating  of  the  Catholics  be  attended  with  worse  conse- 
quences than  the  naturalization  of  the  Jews  ?  Publications, 
ivhich  had  lain  dormant  for  hundreds  of  years,  luere  dragged 
from  their  obscurity,  and  circulated  tvith  an  anxiety  -and  industry 
heretofore  unknown;  every  calumny  that  could  be  throivn  against 
our  tenets — everything  against  our  priesthood — every  libel,  and 
every  lie,  were  marshalled  against  us  I" 

Are  we  recording  a  description  of  former  times,  or  is  it  not 
of  our  own?  A  ministry  getting  popularity  "  at  their  outset," 
by  the  no-popery  cry ;  "  placards,"  (those  of  Exeter  Hall), 
inflaming  the  minds  of  the  passers  in  the  street ;  "  publications 
that  lay  dormant  for  centuries  (poor  Peter  Dens?)  dragged 
from  their  obscurity,  and  circulated  with  anxiety  and  industry  ;' 
"  every  calumny  against  our  tenets — everything  against  our 
priesthood,"  ('  virgin-worship,  surpliced  ruffians,  a  demon  priest- 
hood,' &c.,  &c.,  see  Times,  passim,)  "  every  libel  and  every  lie, 
(Sir  Culling  Eardly  Smith,  &c.,  &c.,  to  wit,)  marshalled 
against  us !" 

Why,  it  is  a  description  of  what  we  have  experienced  in  our 
own  time  ;  nay,  it  is  a  description  of  what  we  have  experienced 
at  all  times,  and  are  doomed  ever  to  experience  at  the  hands  of 
Englishmen,  until  we  deprive  them  of  all  power  to  interfere  with 
us,  and  render  our  country  and  ourselves  independent  of  English 
opinion,  as  of  all  else  that  is  English. 

Even  at  the  risk  of  being  accused  of  prolixity  in  our  details, 
we  cannot  refrain  from  noting  another  part  of  Mr.  Hussey's 
speech,  in  which  he  alludes  to  the  conduct  of  the  late  Lord 
Ross.     The  allusion   has  its    relevancy  now,  as   his   son  and 


ITO  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

successor  seems  so  desirous  of  taking  every  occasion  of  showing, 
that  what  Mr.  O'Connell  has  styled  "the  hereditary  hostility 
of  the  Parsons'  family  to  Ireland,"  has  been  transmitted  down 
to  him  as  venemous  and  vicious  as  ever. 

"  I  wish,"  said  Mr.  Hussey,  "  to  mention  a  circumstance 
relating  to  a  member  of  the  House  of  Lords,  which  will  excite 
the  most  lively  feelings  of  indignation  in  the  breast  of  every  Irish- 
man. On  the  evening  when  3Ir.  Perceval  was  assassinated  in 
the  lobby  of  the  House  of  Commons,  Lord  Ross  (better  known 
as  Sir  Lawrence  Parsons)  was  in  his  place  with  the  peers ;  and 
when  the  information  of  that  horrid  deed  was  brought  to  that 
house,  what  did  his  lordship  say  ?  He  addressed  himself  to 
the  peers  of  the  opposition,  and  exclaimed — '  You  see,  my 
lords,  the  consequence  of  your  agitating  the  question  of  Catholic 
Emancipation.' " 

After  a  just  tribute  to  the  kindness  and  exertions  of  the  Duke 
of  Sussex,  Lord  Donoughmore,  and  Mr.  Grattan,  who  had 
received  the  delegates  most  encouragingly,  and  aided  them  to 
the  utmost  of  their  power,  Mr.  Hussey  sat  down  amid  cheers, 
and  a  vote  of  thanks  was  passed  unanimously  to  him  and  to  his 
colleagues.  Some  of  them  having  returned  thanks,  and  Mr. 
O' Gorman  having  made  a  report  of  the  transactions  of  the  Catho- 
lic Committee  during  the  preceding  ten  or  eleven  months,  Mr. 
O'Connell  came  forward  to  submit  to  the  meeting  the  resolu- 
tions we  have  before  mentioned,  and  which  we  give  here  in 
full  detail  and  form,  as  afterwards  published  in  the  news- 
papers. 

"  At  an  aggregate  meeting  of  the  Catholics  of  Ireland,  held  in  the 
Theatre,  Fishamble-street,  on  the  18th  of  June,  1812 — the  Right 
Hon.  the  Earl  of  Fingal  in  the  chair — 

"  It  was  moved  bv  Counsellor  Finn,  and  seconded  by  Major  Brian,  '  that 
Thomas  Dromgoole,  Esq.,  M.D.,  be  now  appointed  Secretary  to  the  Catholics 
of  Ireland.' 

"  The  above  resolution  passed  unanimously. 

' '  The  following  resolutions  having  been  then  moved  by  Lord  Killeen,  and 
seconded  by  the  Hon.  Mr.  Barnwall,  were  carried  unanimously : — 

*'  1 .  Resolved — That  we  do  forthwith  renew  our  humble  but  earnest  applica- 
tion, by  petition,  to  the  legislature,  praying  the  total  and  unqualified  rei>eal  of 
the  pensd  laws  which  aggrieve   the    Catholics  of  those  realms — infringe  the 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  171 

sacred  rights  of  religious  liberty — and  endanger  the  existence  of  the  British 
empire. 

"  2.  That  the  charge  of  preparing  such  petitions,  and  of  causing  them  to  be 
duly  presented,  without  delay,  be  confided  to  the  individuals  (possessing  the 
confidence  of  the  Catholics  of  Ireland)  named  at  the  last  aggregate  meeting,  as 
the  Board  of  the  Catholics  of  Ireland. 

"  3.  That  the  said  persons  are  so  nominated,  not  to  represent  the  people  of 
those  realms,  or  any  portion  thereof,  but  for  the  purposes,  solely  and  exclu- 
sively, already  prescribed,  and  for  no  other  purpose  whatsoever. 

' '  4.  That  from  authentic  documents  now  before  us,  we  learn  with  deep  dis- 
appointment and  anguish,  how  cruelly  the  promised  boon  of  Catholic  freedom 
has  been  intercepted,  by  the  fatal  witchery  of  an  unworthy  secret  influence, 
hostile  to  our  fairest  hopes,  spurning  alike  the  sanctions  of  public  and  private 
virtue,  the  demands  of  personal  gratitude,  and  the  sacred  obligations  of  plighted 
honour. 

"5.  That  to  this  impure  source  we  trace,  but  too  distinctly,  our  afficted 
hopes  and  protracted  servitude — the  arrogant  invasion  of  the  undoubted  right 
of  petitioning — the  acrimony  of  illegal  state  prosecutions — the  surrender  of 
Ireland  to  prolonged  oppression  and  insult — and  the  many  experiments,  equally 
pitiful  and  perilous,  recently  practised  upon  the  habitual  passiveness  of  an  ill- 
treated,  but  high-spirited  people. 

"6.  That  cheerless,  indeed,  would  be  our  prosi)ects,  and  faint  our  hopes  of 
success,  were  they  to  rest  upon  the  constancy  of  courtiers,  or  the  pompous 
patronage  of  men,  who  can  coldly  sacrifice  the  feelings  and  interest  of  millions, 
at  the  shrine  of  perishable  power ;  or,  deluded  by  the  blandishments  of  a  too- 
luxurious  court,  can  hazard  the  safety  of  a  people,  for  iU-timed  courtly  com- 
pliment. The  pageants  of  a  court  command  not  our  respect — our  great  cause 
rests  upon  the  immutable  foundations  of  truth,  and  justice,  and  reason.  Equal 
constitutional  rights,  unconditional,  unstipulated,  unpurchased  by  dishonour, 
are  objects  dear  to  our  hearts.  They  consist  with  wisdom,  virtue,  humanity, 
true  religion,  and  unafiected  honour  ;  and  can  never  be  abandoned  by  men  who 
deserve  to  be  free. 

"  7.  That  for  the  complete  attainment  of  this,  our  constitutional  object,  we 
firmly  confide  in  our  now  persevering  exertions,  in  the  enlightened  wisdom  and 
growing  liberality  of  our  fellow-citizens,  (recently  and  gloriously  exhibited  in 
their  petitions  to  parliament  in  our  behalf,)  and,  above  all,  in  that  over-ruling 
Providence  which  presides  over  the  destinies  of  nations,  and  permits  not  the 
oppression  of  man,  by  his  fellow-creatures,  with  impunity. 

"8.  That,  turning  with  disgust  from  the  gloomy  wreck  of  public  character, 
presented  in  recent  events,  we  recognize  with  esteem  and  admiration  the  truly 
noble  elevation  of  sentiment  which  has  distinguished  Lords  Grey  and  Grenville, 
and  the;other  personages  who,  with  them,  have  stood  aloof  from  the  allurements 
of  intrigue,  and  maintained  the  high  station  of  rigid  independence.  We  regard 
their  recent  conduct  as  dictated  by  sound  wisdom,  by  well-founded  caution, 
and  by  an  honest  anxiety,  as  well  for  the  secure  attainment  of  great  public 
benefits,  as  for  the  conservation  of  their  personal  honour. 

"9.  That  we  have  found,  in  the  Earl  of  Donoughmore,  a  steady,  earnest, 
and  intrepid  advocate  of  our  rights — an  ever  faithful  sentinel  of  our  interests — 
an  undaunted  and  judicious  asserter  of  truths  awfully  important  to  our 
country.  That  the  Right  Honourable  Henry  Grattan  has  eloquently  sustained 
our  application  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  has  again  deserved  our  eternal 
gratitude  ;  and  that  our  chairman  be  requested  to  transmit  these  our  sentiments 
in  suitable  terms  to  all  those  illustrious  personages. 

"  10.  That  we  have  viewed,  with  inexpressible  pleasure  and  admiration,  the 
generous  exertions  of  our  fellow-citizens,  of  other  persuasions,  in  our  behalf, 
their  solicitude  in  subscribing  and  recommending  petitions  to  parhament  for  our 
relief,  their  spontaneous  support  at  pubUc  meetings.     We  hope  to  merit  their 


172  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

lionourable  confidence  by  a  continuance  of  the  same  temperate,  but  firm  con- 
duct, which  has  already  conciliated  their  esteem ;  and,  though  we  cannot,  in 
sincerity,  proffer  those  securities,  or  arrangements,  (amounting,  if  practicable, 
to  the  new  exchange  of  one  species  of  servitude  for  another),  yet  we  must 
cheerfully  tender  to  their  kind  acceptance  the  only  equivalent  in  our  power, 
our  warm  affections  and  lasting  gratitude — our  oaths  of  allegiance — our 
past  loyalty  and  merits — our  present  willingness  to  assist"  (when  by  law 
permitted)  in  the  arduous  enterprise  of  saving  the  sinking  vessel  of  the 
state. 

"11.  That  from  recent  observation  of  political  duplicity,  we  feel  it  necessary 
to  recommend  most  earnestly  to  all  Catholic  freeholders  thoughout  Ireland, 
steadily  to  resist  the  pretensions  of  any  candidates,  who  shall  hesitate  to  pledge 
themselves  publicly  to  the  uniform  support  of  Catholic  Emancipation  ;  or  who 
shall  lend,  or  are  likely  to  lend,  their  support  to  an  administration,  founded  in 
intolerance,  and  hostile  to  the  full  enjoyment  of  religious  liberty. 

' '  12.  That  the  expenses,  unavoidably  attendant  upon  the  conduct  of  Catholic 
jietitions,  and  the  defence  of  the  invaded  rights  of  petitioning,  call  for  the 
liberal  aid  of  our  fellow  countr3^men,  and  we  confide  to  the  public  spirit  and 
zeal  of  the  Catholic  body,  tliroughout  every  district,  for  ample  pecuniary 
support. 

"  13.  That  these  our  resolutions  be  published  in  the  public  prints,  four  times 
in  four  of  the  London  newspapers,  and  six  times  in  six  of  the  Dubhn  news- 
papers. 

"  14.  That  the  most  cordial  gratitude  of  the  Catholics  of  Ireland  is  due  to  the 
author  of  the  '  Statement  of  the  Penal  Laws, '  lately  published — a  work  in  which 
we  recognize  all  the  accuracy  of  great  legal  knowledge  combined  with  the 
classic  elegance  of  the  scholar,  and  the  profound  observation  of  the  philoso- 
pher. 

"  15.  That  the  Catholics  of  Ireland  have  beheld  with  sentiments  of  the 
deepest  gratitude,  the  exalted  patriotism  of  his  royal  highness  the  Duke  of 
Sussex,  manifested  by  his  constitutional  and  enlightened  support  of  the  principles 
of  religious  hberty. 

"  16.  That  the  warmest  expressions  of  admiration  and  thanks  are  due,  and  " 
hereby  given  to  Counsellor  Finlay,  for  the  luminous  and  profoundly  eloquent 
speech  delivered  by  him  this  day. 

"17.  That  the  Protestant  gentlemen  who  have  honoured  our  meeting  this 
day  with  their  presence,  are  deserving  of  our  warmest  thanks. 

"18.  That  the  Catholic  Board  be  requested  to  submit  petitions  to  the 
Catholics  of  Ireland,  in  aggregate  meeting  assembled  this  day  fortnight,  for 
their  adoption. 

"19.  That  we  do  strongly  and  earnestly  recommend  it  to  the  counties, 
cities,  and  great  towns  in  Ireland,  again  to  accompany  the  Catholics  of  Ireland, 
by  local  petitions,  inasmuch  as  we  consider  the  reiteration  of  an  universal 
application  to  the  legislature  as  one  of  the  most  effectual  means  of  success. 

' '  20.  That  the  thanks  of  the  Catholics  of  Ireland  are  due,  and  are  hereby 
given,  to  the  noblemen  and  gentlemen  deputed  by  our  board  to  convey  our 
petition  to  parhament,  and  our  address  to  the  Prince  Regent,  for  their  faithful, 
zealous,  and  honourable  discharge  of  the  trust  reposed  in  them. 

"21.  That  the  warmest  and  most  cordial  thanks  of  this  meeting  are  due, 
and  are  hereby  given,  to  the  Earl  of  Fingal,  for  his  highly  dignified  conduct  in 
the  chair  this  day. 

"FINGAL,  Chairman. 

"THOMAS  UKOMGOOLE,  m.d.,  Secretary." 

These   resolutions,    after   having    been    thus   read   by    Mr. 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,   M.P.  173 

O'Connell,  were  moved  by  Lord  Killeen,  and  seconded  by  Mr. 
Barnewall. 

A  very  able  and  excellent  speech  followed  from  John  Finlay, 
Esq.,  (at  present  Assistant-Barrister  for  Roscommon  county), 
to  whom  the  cause  was  much  indebted  for  powerful  oratory  and 
useful  exertions  on  many  occasions. 

The  reference  at  the  commencement  of  Mr.  O'Connell's 
speech,  which  we  are  about  to  give,  is  to  the  gentleman  just 
mentioned. 

Mr.  O'Connell — "  I  have,  my  lord,  much  to  say,  but  I  shall  say 
little  :  I  cannot  venture  to  detain  you  after  my  eloquent  friend — after 
the  brilliant  display  you  have  just  witnessed  of  the  talents  and  power- 
ful eloquence  of  my  learned  and  excellent  friend,  Mr.  Finlay.  We 
do,  indeed,  owe  him  much  :  I  was  about  to  regret  that  he  was  not  a 
Catholic,  I  was  so  pleased  with  him,  and  so  anxious  that  we  might 
have  the  credit  of  such  talents ;  but  when  I  consider,  I  think  it  is 
better  that  matters  should  be  as  they  are  ;  for  it  must  gratify  every 
Catholic  in  Ireland  to  have  Protestant  talent  such  as  his  come  forward 
to  grace  and  support  our  assemblies  ;  and  it  is  a  new  source  of  uncon- 
querable strength  to  our  cause,  to  have  Protestant  and  Catholic 
equally  ardent  in  the  struggle  in  which  we  are  engaged.  His  are 
talents  which  ministerial  corruption  could  not  purchase,  for  they  are 
beyond  all  price. 

"  My  duty  calls  upon  me  to  address  you ;  I  may  be  mistaken  ;  but 
I  consider  it  as  ray  duty — upon  a  subject,  painful  in  itself,  yet  as 
speaking  upon  it  may  be  beneficial  in  its  consequences,  I  will  not 
shrink  from,  nor  decline  it :  I  allude,  my  lord,  to  the  public  assertion 
of  some  of  the  many  pledges  which  his  royal  highness  the  Prince 
Regent  was  graciously  pleased  to  tender  to  the  Catholics  of  Ireland, 
before  any  part  of  the  executive  authority  of  the  state  had  devolved 
upon  him. 

"  I  shall  state  but  a  few  of  them  :  I  do  it  without  any  breach  of 
confidence,  or  violating  any  honorary  engagement,  either  expressed 
or  implied.  Without  egotism,  perhaps  I  may  say,  that  no  person  will 
charge  me  with  being  guilty  of  either — and  I  defy  my  enemies,  who 
are  mine  only  because  they  hate  or  oppress  my  poor  country,  to  insi- 
nuate the  slightest  doubt  of  the  veracity  of  my  assertions. 

"  I  shall  bring  before  the  public,  for  the  present,  but  four  of  those 
pledges.  I  am  sorry  they  were  not  formerly  made  generally  public ; 
for  if  they  had,  no  man  could  have  been  so  profligate  as  to  advise  the 


174  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

Prince  to  anything  tending  towards  a  violation  of  them,  and  much  of 
the  anxiety  and  distrust  which  now  distract  the  mind  of  the  nation, 
might  have  been  spared  and  avoided. 

"  The  first  in  rank,  though  not  in  order  of  time,  is  that  communi- 
cated to  the  Catholics  of  Ireland,  by  his  Grace  the  Duke  of  Bedford. 
He  lives — my  witness  lives :  what  is  said  here  will  probably  reach 
him  through  the  public  papers ;  and  I  caU  upon  him,  publicly  to  con- 
tradict anything  I  advance,  which  is  not  literally  warranted  by  the 
fact.  Thus,  then,  do  I  state,  that  in  1806,  about  the  commencement 
of  the  Fox  administration,  when  the  Catholics,  flushed  with  hope  at 
seeing  their  late  advocates  in  power,  were  about  to  prepare  petitions 
to  parliament,  the  ministry  used  many  means  to  postpone  that  mea- 
sure. At  that  period,  and  as  one  of  those  means,  his  Grace  the  Duke 
of  Bedford,  then  lord- lieutenant  of  Ireland,  did  communicate  to  the 
Catholics  of  Ireland,  the  wish  of  his  Royal  Highness  the  Prince  of 
Wales,  that  the  question  should  not  then  be  agitated  ;  and  at  the  same 
time,  his  decided  conviction  of  the  justice  of  our  claims,  and  his 
decided  resolution  to  admit  them  whenever  he  should  have  power  to 
do  so. 

"  Perhaps  I  can  state  this  pledge  ;  but  I  see  persons  before  me  to 
whom  this  language  was  held  ;  and  I  am  quite  sure  that  the  Duke  of 
Bedford  would  never,  never  have  conveyed  one  idea  on  the  subject,  if 
he  had  not  his  authority  directly  from  the  Prince. 

"  Secondly,  my  lord,  we  have  had  in  the  same  year,  the  same  pledge 
repeated  to  many  Catholics,  by  the  Chancellor  of  Ireland,  George 
Ponsonby. 

"  The  keeper  of  his  Majesty's  Irish  conscience  must  be  supposed  to 
have  had  a  kind  of  reversionary  solicitude  for  that  of  his  Royal  High- 
ness, the  heir  apparent.  Mr.  Ponsonby  does,  I  understand,  distinctly 
avow  the  authority  under  which  he  communicated  to  the  Irish  Catho- 
lics, the  promise  of  emancipation — when,  in  the  fullness  of  time,  he, 
whom  we  then  cherished  as  the  early  friend  of  Ireland,  and  the 
proudest  hope,  should  have  it  in  his  power  to  rouse  the  enthusiasm  of 
an  elective  people  round  his  throne. 

''  Good  God !  what  a  prodigal  waste  has  since  been  committed — 
not  of  wealth,  for  that,  comparatively,  is  no  more  than  trash — but  of 
the  cheerful  and  best  defence  of  the  monarch,  the  Irish  people's  love. 

"  The  third  pledge  is  a  written  one,  and  is  in  the  possession  of  a 
Catholic  peer,  not  now  present.  I  have  not  the  honour  to  be  sui[fi- 
ciently  known  to  the  Earl  of  Kenmare,  to  have  applied  to  him  for  it ; 
but  I  entertained  hopes  of  being  able  to  procure  it  tlirough  a  friend 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.V.  175 

of  mine,  and  of  his  lordship.  It  is  sufficient  to  say  of  that  pledge, 
that  it  aiforded  for  years  consolation  to  the  Irish  Catholics  ;  and  the 
discretion  with  Avhich  it  was  communicated,  enhanced  its  value.  I 
believe,  my  lord,  I  need  not  state  to  you  how  little  doubt  it  could 
leave  of  the  firm  decision  of  the  Prince's  mind  upon  our  question. 

"  The  fourth  and  last  pledge,  which,  for  the  present,  I  shall  men- 
tion, was  that  given  by  his  Royal  Highness  to  a  noble  lord  now  pre- 
sent. At  the  conversation  I  allude  to,  that  noble  lord  was  accom- 
panied by  the  late  Lord  Petre,  and  the  present  Lord  Clifden.  After 
retiring  from  the  presence  of  his  Royal  Highness,  the  declarations 
which  he  was  so  graciously  pleased  to  make,  were  from  a  loyal  and 
afiectionate  impulse  of  gratitude,  committed  to  writing,  and  signed  by 
the  three  noble  lords. 

"His  Royal  Highness  did,  I  understand,  offer  something  like  an 
apology,  for  not  having  taken  an  active  part  in  promoting  the  success 
of  our  petition,  in  1805.  He  was  pleased  to  say,  that  obvious  motives 
of  delicacy  restrained  his  interference  on  political  subjects,  but  that 
this  delicacy  was  still  more  imperative  on  our  question.  However, 
he  desired  it  to  be  understood  that  he  had  formed  his  opinion  upon 
it,  and  would  ever  entertain  them  unaltered.  They  were,  that  con- 
cession to  the  Irish  Catholics  were  required,  not  only  by  reasons  of 
expediency  and  policy,  but  by  the  first  principles  of  justice. 

"  I  will  not  add — I  must  not  add  one  word  more  on  this  subject. 
These  were  the  sentiments  of  his  Royal  Highness :  we  should  have 
proclaimed  them  last  year,  and  no  minister  would  have  been  found 
sufficiently  profligate  to  have  disappointed  our  certain  expectations  of 
immediate  relief :  nor  has  his  Royal  Highness,  to  this  hour,  by  any 
personal  act  of  his — by  any  public  declaration,  or  recommendation  to 
parliament,  retracted  any  part  of  these  sentiments.  Let  us,  then, 
fondly  and  respectfully  hope  that  they  are  unaltered.  Sure  I  am  that 
no  base  minion  will  venture  to  assert,  that  the  air  of  Manchester- 
square  has  infected  the  royal  mind  with  simples,  or  that  Lord  Yar- 
mouth has  inoculated  him  with  the  theory  or  practice  of  excessive 
piety. 

"  We  may  still  hope.  Hope,  the  last  refuge  of  the  wretched,  is 
left  us ;  and  we  lately  indulged  it  almost  with  the  pleasures  of  cer- 
tainty: a  crime,  the  horrid  crime  of  causeless  assassination,  had 
deprived  England  of  her  prime  minister — for,  my  lord,  everywhere 
but  in  Ireland,  assassination  is  admitted  to  be  a  crime.  Here,  also, 
it  depends  on  circumstances ;  you  have  but  to  combine  these  circum- 
stances.    Let  the  victim  be  an  Irish  papist — let  the  murderer  be  an 


176  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

Orangeman — and  let  a  legal  junta  administer  the  government  in  the 
name  of  the  Duke  of  Richmond.  It  requires  no  more  to  turn  murder 
into  merit ! 

"  The  process  in  England  is  different.  There  they  hanged  and 
dissected  the  murderer,  and  transferred  the  advantages  of  the  crime, 
if  I  may  so  express  myself,  to  the  victim ;  it  really  and  truly  has 
been  considered  a  merit  in  Mr.  Perceval  to  have  been  murdered. 
The  public  men  in  England  seem  to  think  his  death  constituted  not 
only  an  expiation  for  all  his  political  sins,  but  turned  his  offences 
against  his  country  into  virtues. 

"  For  my  part,  I  feel  unaffected  horror  at  his  fate,  and  all  trace  of 
resentment  for  his  crimes  is  obliterated.  But  I  do  not  forget  that  he 
was  a  narrow-minded  bigot,  a  paltry  statesman,  and  a  bad  minister — 
that  every  species  of  public  corruption  and  profligacy  had  in  him  a 
flippant  and  pert  advocate — that  every  advance  towards  reform  or 
economy,  had  in  him  a  decided  enemy — and  that  the  liberties  of  the 
people  were  an  object  of  his  derision. 

"  All  this  has  not  been  changed  by  the  hand  of  this  assassin  ;  yet 
I  do,  from  my  heart,  participate  in  the  grief  and  anguish  which  his 
premature  fall  must  have  excited  within  his  domestic  circle.  The 
sorrows  of  his  family  have  been  obtruded  on  the  public  by  ill- 
judging  party  writers,  with  something  •  like  ostentatious  affectation; 
but  I  do  not  love  the  man — nay,  I  hate  the  man  who  could  contem- 
plate, coldly  and  unmoved,  the  affecting  spectacle  of  the  wife  and 
children  standing  in  speechless  agony  round  the  lifeless  body  of  the 
murdered  husband  and  father ;  it  was  a  scene  to  make  a  stoic  weep. 

"  But  are  all  our  feelings  to  be  exhausted  by  the  great  ?  Is  there  no 
compassion  for  the  wretched  Irish  widow,  who  lost  her  boy — her  hope, 
her  support  ?  I  shall  never  forget  the  pathetic  and  Irish  simplicity  with 
which  she  told  her  tale  of  woe — '  My  child  was  but  seventeen  ;  he 
left  me  on  Sunday  morning,  quite  well,  and  very  merry,  and  he  came 
home  a  corpse.'  Are  her  feelings  to  be  despised  and  trampled  on  ? 
Is  the  murderer  of  her  son  to  remain  unpunished,  perhaps  to  be 
rewarded  ?  Oh,  yes  ;  for  Byrne  was  a  papist,  and  the  assassin,  Hall, 
was  an  Orangeman,  nay,  a  purple  marksman  ;  and,  recollect,  that  his 
Grace  the  Duke  of  Richmond  did  not  pardon  him  until  after  a  most 
fair  and  patient  trial.  Hall  was  defended  by  his  counsel  and  attor. 
ney;  he  was  tried  by  a  jury  of  his  own  selection — I  say  of  his  own 
selection — because  he  exhausted  but  few  of  his  peremptory  chal- 
lenges ;  nobody,  indeed,  would  think  of  accusing  honest  Sheriff 
James  of  packing  a  jury  against  an  Orangeman.     Even  had  the  list 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  177 

been  previously  submitted  to  the  secretary  at  the  Castle,  he  would 
not  have  altered  a  single  name ;  Sir  Charles  Saxton  might  have 
reviewed  it  with  perfect  safety  to  the  prisoner. 

"  After  a  patient  trial,  and  a  full  defence,  Hall  was  convicted ; 
he  was  convicted  before  a  judge,  certainly  not  unfavourable  to  the 
prisoner;  he  was  convicted  of  having  murdered,  with  the  arms 
entrusted  to  him  for  the  defence  of  the  public  peace,  and  in  the  pub- 
lic streets  of  your  city,  and  in  the  open  day,  an  innocent  and  unof- 
fending youth.  He  has  been  pardoned  and  set  at  large — perhaps  he 
has  been  rewarded ;  but  can  this  be  done  with  impunity  ?  is  there  no 
vengeance  for  the  blood  of  the  widow's  son  ?  Alas !  I  am  not,  I 
trust,  inclined  to  superstition,  yet  it  obtruded  itself  on  my  mind,  that 
the  head  of  that  government  which  had  allowed  the  blood  of  Byrne 
to  flow  unrequited,  might  have  vindicated  the  notion  of  a  providen- 
tial visitation  for  the  unpunished  crime. 

"  My  lord,  I  have  digressed :  I  meant  to  speak  of  Perceval's 
removal  by  the  assassin,  merely  as  that  tragic  event  opened  a  near 
prospect  of  our  emancipation :  we  should  have  been  emancipated. 
At  the  moment  I  am  sjieaking,  the  bill  for  our  relief  would  have  been 
in  its  progress  through  the  legislature — we  should  have  been  emanci- 
pated this  very  sessions,  unconditionally  and  completely  emancipated ; 
but  for  what  ? — I  speak  it  in  no  anger,  but  in  the  deepest  sorrow — 
but  for  Lord  Moira. 

"Lord  Moira  is  a  name  that  I  have  never  before  pronounced 
without  enthusiasm ;  I  am  quite  aware  of  his  high  honour,  his 
unbounded  generosity,  his  chivalrous  spirit ;  his  heart  has  ever  been 
without  fear,  his  intentions  have  ever  been,  and  will  ever  be,  without 
reproach  ;  Ireland  was  justly  proud  of  him  ;  where  could  his  fellow 
be  met  with  ?  In  the  disastrous  period  that  preceded  the  Union — at 
the  time  that  measure  was  in  preparation — when  Foster  and  Clare 
banished  Abercrombie  from  Ireland,  because  he  was  humane — when 
murders  marked  the  day,  and  the  burning  cottages  of  the  peasantry 
illumined  the  darkness  of  the  night — when  affright  and  desolation 
stalked  through  the  land — when  it  was  a  crime  to  love  Ireland,  and 
death  to  defend  her  ;  at  that  awful  moment,  Moira,  the  good,  the 
great  Moira,  threw  himself  between  his  country  and  her  perse- 
cutors; he  exposed  their  crimes;  he  denounced  their  horrors;  he 
proclaimed  and  proved  their  guilt ;  and,  although  they  were  too 
powerful  to  be  beaten  down  by  him,  he  has  left  his  country 
the  sad  consolation  of  beholding  a  perpetual  record  of  the  infamy  of 
her  oppressors. 

N 


178  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

"  Good  God !  if  his  advice  had  been  taken  in  1797,  what  innocent 
blood  would  have  been  spared  ;  how  many  ci'uel  oppressors  would 
have  been  punished  !  and  oh  !  our  country  would  still  have  a  name, 
and  be  a  nation. 

"  Can  these  services  be  forgotten — can  these  virtues  be  unremem- 
bered?  No,  never  ;  but  still  the  truth  must  be  told.  This  is  Lord 
3Ioira's  administration.  He  it  was  that  stood  between  some  worth- 
less minions  and  the  people's  hopes.  He  had  to  choose  between  them ; 
and  he  has  given  his  protection,  not  to  Ireland  or  the  Catholics,  but 
to  Lord  Yarmouth  and  his  family.  It  is  now  confessed  that  a  single 
word  from  Lord  Moira  would  have  dismissed  the  minions,  and  placed 
Earl  Grey  and  Lord  Grenville  at  the  head  of  affairs.  Why  was  not 
that  fated  word  pronounced  ?  Alas !  I  know  not.  Full  sure, 
however,  I  am,  that  the  intention  which  restrained  it  was  pure  and 
honovirable  ;  but  I,  at  the  same  time,  feel  its  fatal  effects.  We  are, 
my  lord,  to  continue  slaves,  because  Lord  Moira  indulged  some 
chivalrous  notions  of  courtly  romance  ! 

"  It  may  be  said,  that  as  Lord  Moira  has  interfered,  the  Catholics 
may  reasonably  expect  some  relief.  Let  us  not  be  deceived.  From 
the  present  ministry  we  cannot  expect  anything.  Our  best  and 
boldest  advocate,  Lord  Donoughmore,  has,  in  his  manly  reply  to  our 
address,  offered  the  best  advice  that  ever  was  given  to  the  Catholic  people 
of  Ireland.  He  has  suggested  the  gi'ounds  of  caution  and  jealousy. 
We  know  his  devotion  to  our  cause  ;  but  this  last  proof  of  his  zeal  and 
vigorous  integrity,  has  rendered  it  impossible  that  we  should  ever 
be  sufficiently  grateful.  I  am  proud  that  your  resolutions  re-echo  his 
sentiments. 

"  But,  in  sober  sadness,  in  whom  are  we  to  confide  ?  Are  we  to 
believe  the  word  of  Castlereagh  ?  My  lord,  I  would  not  believe  his 
oath.  Already  has  he  been  deeply  pledged.  He  was  an  United 
Irishman,  and  as  such,  must  have  taken  their  test.  It  was  then 
administered,  I  believe,  without  the  ceremonies  of  an  oath,  but  it  had 
all  the  solemnity  of  that  obligation.  It  pledged  him  to  Catholic 
Emancipation  and  Parliamentary  Reform.  Again,  my  lord,  upon 
the  hustings  of  the  Down  election,  he  was  called  upon,  and  he 
volunteered  a  similar  declaration.  It  was  a  bond,  solemnly  given  to 
liis  constituents  and  his  country.  But  how  has  he  redeemed  those 
pledges  ?  Why,  he  has  emancipated  the  Catholics  by  duping  some 
of  them  at  the  Union,  and  uniformly  voting  upon  every  question 
against  us  ;  and  he  has  reformed  the  parliament  by  selling  it  to  the 
British  minislcr.    May  this  Walcheren  minister  be  suitably  rewarded 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  179 

in  the  execration  of  his  country  ;  and  may  he  have  engraved  on  his 
tomb  for  an  epitaph — 

"  •  Vehdidit  hie  auro  patriam.' 

"  No,  my  lord,  from  us  Castlereagh  can  obtain  no  confidence,  not 
can  his  colleague,  Lord  Sidmouth,  expect  that  the  friends  of  toleration 
can  confide  in  his  promises.  Lord  Sidmouth,  who  declared  to 
parliament  that  he  would  prefer  the  re-enactment  of  the  penal  code 
to  the  extension  of  one  other  privilege  to  the  Catholics ;  Lord 
Sidmouth,  who  began  his  absurd  career  of  persecution  with  the 
Dissenters  in  England  ;  that  Lord  Sidmouth  (liberal  and  enlightened 
gentleman)  has  been  selected  for  the  home  department ;  he  it  is 
who  is  to  regulate  the  motions  of  our  provincial  government ;  he  it 
is  that  is  to  cheer  the  drooping  spirit  of  persecution  in  this  country; 
his  natural  allies  are  embodied  here  ;  the  group  of  '  good  men,'  as 
they  fantastically  designate  themselves,  who  manage  the  legal  admi- 
nistration of  this  country ;  men  who  have  worked  themselves  into 
reputation  with  ancient  maidens  and  decayed  matrons,  by  gravity  of 
deportment  and  church-wardening  piety,  but  who,  all  their  lives, 
have  been  discounting  religion  and  the  Deity  into  promotion  and  the 
pay  and  plunder  of  oflice — those  men,  together  with  our  friend  (the 
Solicitor  General),  have  a  suitable  companion  in  Lord  Sidmouth,  and 
we  should,  instead  of  concessions,  be  prepared  rather  to  expect  some 
other  persecution,  grounded,  if  possible,  upon  a  pretext  still  more 
absurd  than  that  '  pretence  means  purpose  ;'  that  assertion,  which  I 
defy  an  honest  man,  however  credulous,  to  believe. 

"  From  this  ministry  we  expect  nothing  ;  let  us  be  on  our  guard, 
and  cautiously  watch  their  progress.  As  Lord  Moira  has  been  their 
patron,  they  will  endeavour  to  deceive  him  with  a  show  of  conces- 
sion ;  but  their  object  is  to  give  a  change  to  the  question.  In  its 
present  shape  it  presses  upon  them  with  all  the  force  of  present 
expediency,  and  all  the  weight  of  eternal  justice.  If  they  could 
entrap  us  into  collateral  discussions  ;  if  they  could  entangle  us  in  the 
chicanery  of  arrangements  and  securities,  the  public  attention  would 
be  distracted  and  turned  from  the  principal  object ;  time  would  be 
wasted  in  useless  discussions  ;  animosities  would  be  created  upon 
points  of  little  real  importance,  and  whilst  the  ministry  practised  the 
refinements  of  bigotry,  they  would  give  themselves  credit  for  un- 
bounded liberality. 

"  These  are  not  imaginary  fears ;  the  nature  of  the  subject 
must  convince   any  man,  that   such  was   the   design  of  an  adminis- 


180  -  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

tration  that  had,  for  its  only  recommendations,  intolerance  and 
incapacity. 

"  Indeed,  the  indiscretion  of  the  party  already  betrayed  itself.  It 
is  not  twenty-four  hours  since  a  friend  of  mine  had  occasion  to  converse 
with  one  of  those  right  honourables,  who  did  the  business  of  the 
Castle,  who  are  always  as  ready  to  pack  juries  as  to  obtain  pardon 
for  an  assassin,  or  to  write  paragraphs  in  the  Patriot.  My  friend 
said,  '  Why,  you  are  going,  I  find,  to  emancipate  the  Catholics  at 
length.'  '  We  !'  replied  the  other.  '  Oh,  no  !  Canning's  motion  will 
entangle  the  rascals  completely  ;  we  shall  easily  get  rid  of  them 
without  committing  ourselves.' 

"  Of  those  men.  Lord  Donoughmore  has  advised  us  to  be  distrust- 
ful. I  beg  leave  to  say  more.  Let  us  utterly  disbelieve  them.  It 
is  impossible  that  they  can  do  anything  for  us  ;  they  would  be  false 
to  themselves  if  they  were  true  to  Ireland.  But  we  are  not  without 
our  resources  ;  we  have  them  in  ourselves  ;  we  have  them  in  the 
liberality  of  our  Irish.  Protestant  brethren  ;  we  have  them  in  the 
support  of  such  men  as  the  all-accomplished  Vernon,  son  to  the 
Archbishop  of  York — as  the  honest  and  independent  Robert  Shaw. 
We  have  also  a  rich  resource  in  the  eternal  ridicule  with  which 
bigotry  has  lately  covered  itself  in  the  persons  of  its  chosen  apostles, 
Paddy  Duignan  and  Jack  GiiFard  ;  but,  above  all,  we  are  strong  in 
the  justice  of  our  cause,  and  in  the  unextinguishable  right  of  man,  in 
every  soil  and  climate,  to  unlimited  liberty  of  conscience.  Let  us, 
however,  expect  nothing  from  the  mere  patronage  of  courts  and 
ministers.  The  advice  given  by  a  noble  advocate  of  ours,  to  other 
slaves,  in  a  poem,  that,  it  is  impossible  to  read  without  delight,  is  not 
inapplicable  to  our  situation  : — 

"  '  Hereditary  bondsmen  !  know  ye  not, 

Who  would  be  free,  themselves  must  strike  the  blow — 
By  their  right  arms,  the  conquest  must  be  wrought ; 

AVill  Gaul  or  Muscovite  redress  you  ? — No. 
True,  they  may  lay  your  proud  despoilers  low, 

But  not  for  you  will  freedom's  altar  flame. 
Shades  of  the  Helots — triumph  o'er  your  foe — 

Greece  change  thy  lords,  thy  state  is  still  the  same. 

Thy  glories  all  are  o'er,  but  not  thy  years  of  shame.' 

"Yes,  we  must,  after  all,  look  to  ourselves — to  a  perseverance  in  a 
course  of  temperate,  but  firm  exertion — to  that  blow  which  we  can 
strike  on  Prejudice  by  the  force  of  Reason,  and  the  unceasing  exhi- 
bition of  our  meritorious  conduct. 

"  It  is  true,  that  after  common  sense  has  overthrown  every  pretence, 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  181 

that  there  is  anytliing  in  the  Catholic  Religion  hostile  to  loyalty  or 
liberty  ;  another  ground  has  been  long  since  taken,  and  from  time  to 
time  revived,  by  the  unhappy  dulness  of  one  pedant  or  the  other. 
It  consists  in  an  admission  that  the  Catholic  religion  is  quite  inno- 
cent, and  even  laudable  in  other  countries  ;  but  that  it  acquires 
malignity  fix)m  the  soil  on  its  transplantation  into  Ireland.  In  short, 
that  other  papists  are  innocent  or  good ;  but  that  Irish  papists  are 
execrable. 

"  This  precious  doctrine  has  been  dressed  up  anew,  in  sufficiently 
bad  English,  and  published  in  a  pamphlet  called  '  a  Speech,'  by  that 
snug  little  Foster,  who  represents  Trinity  College  in  parliament.  It 
is  added,  too,  with  most  admirable  consistency,  that  the  mass  of  the 
Irish  papists  are  quite  indifferent  to  the  question  of  Catholic  Eman- 
cipation. But  see  what  the  fact  is.  Look  to  the  history  of  the  last 
six  months  for  the  contradiction  of  those  vile  assertions.  Why,  the 
Protestants  of  Ireland  had  only  to  show  their  wish  to  relieve  us — 
they  could  do  no  more  than  express  their  inclination  to  set  us  free. 
The  Union  depi'ived  them  of  the  power  to  give  us  liberty  ;  but  they 
declared  it  was  our  right,  and  they  joined  us  in  demanding  it.  What 
followed  ?  Why,  in  the  first  place,  a  season  of  unexampled  scarcity 
and  distress  in  both  islands.  In  England  there  chanced  to  exist 
tumult,  riot,  destruction  of  property,  murder,  insurrection,  and  almost 
actual  rebellion.  In  Ireland  there  was  seen  tranquillity  the  most 
profound,  obedience  the  most  perfect;  pressed  by  famine  and  want, 
goaded  by  insulting  prosecutions,  by  arranged  juries,  by  the  thou- 
sand other  wrongs  which  I  shall  not  name,  the  people  of  Ireland 
have  found  abundant  consolation  in  the  single  liberality  of  their 
countrymen,  and  they  have  shown  their  sense  of  this  liberality 
by  dutiful  and  unbi'oken  submission  at  those  moments  of  the  greatest 
peril  England  has  as  yet  known.  Not  a  feather  is  ruffled  on  the  sur- 
face of  our  island.  The  Caravat  and  the  Shanavest  seem  to  have 
forgotten  their  quarrels ;  and  every  angry  tone  and  turbulent 
propensity  is  hushed  by  the  presence  of  the  spirit  of  universal 
toleration. 

"  In  the  meantime,  the  precious  hours  for  peace  and  conciliation  ai-e 
wasted — the  genius  of  Napoleon,  the  star  of  his  imperial  house,  pre- 
vails. England,  under  the  guidance  of  the  venerated  name  of  Moira, 
has  appointed  an  administration  first  rejected,  and  then  approved  by 
parliament,  for  the  appointment  of  which  Napoleon  would  have  given 
millions.  How  he  must  rejoice  to  see  the  parliament  degrade  itself 
by  inconsit-teut  votes — to  see  the  Dissenters  and  Catholics  insulted  by 


182 


MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 


the  nomination  of  Lord  Sidmouth  to  rule  the  Home  Department — to 
see  Walcheren  Castlereagh  conducting  our  war  counsels  ;  and,  last  and 
wonderful,  to  see  Lord  Liverpool  prime  minister  ! ! 

"  My  lord,  securities  are  wanting  ;  they  are  wanting  for  the  last 
refuge  of  public  liberty — the  only  remnant  of  representative 
government  in  Europe ;  they  are  wanting  for  the  throne  and 
the  people ;  they  are  wanting  against  the  folly,  the  incapacity, 
the  intolerance  of  the  ministry — against  the  power  and  the  talents  of 
the  French  Emperor.  He,  to  be  sure,  is  absent  for  a  season — he  is 
gone  to  Petersburgh,  to  receive  the  submission  of  a  vassal,  or  to 
dethrone  an  enemy.  It  is  absurd  to  expect  any  other  result ;  he  will 
return  with  his  hundreds  of  thousands  to  the  conquest  of  Spain  and 
Portugal.  What  can  the  unarmed  bands  of  the  one  country,  or  our 
few  companies  in  the  other  (though  braver  spirits  than  our  brothers 
and  kinsmen  there  never  graced  a  field  of  fight) — what  can  they  be 
able  to  do,  overmatched  by  myriads  ?  And  then,  my  lord — and  then, 
in  what  condition  shall  those  countries  be  found  to  fight  the  battle  of 
our  existence  ? 

"  It  is  to  prepare  for  that  dreadful  moment,  which  is  so  steadily  on 
its  progress,  that  all  my  anxieties  are  roused.  I  should  fear  it  not, 
if  a  system  of  conciliation  and  mutual  tolerance  were  once  adopted — 
if  justice  were  distributed  by  the  hand  of  confiding  generosity — if  the 
persecutions  ceased,  and  that  the  persecutors  were  removed — if  Grey 
were  prime  minister,  and  Moira,  then  restored  to  the  hearts  of  his 
countrymen,  were  lord  lieutenant.  Every  village  would  produce  a 
regiment,  and  every  field  serve  for  a  redoubt.  The  Prince  would 
then  be  safe  and  glorious ;  and  the  country,  combined  in  its  strength, 
would  laugh  to  scorn  the  power  of  every  enemy. 

"  This  is  a  vision  ;  but  it  might  have  been  realized.  And  why 
has  this  prospect  been  closed  ?  Why  ! — to  preserve  the  household  ! 
Oh,  most  degrading  recollection  !  My  feelings  overpower  me — I 
must  be  silent." 

The  administration  so  severely  commented  upon  was  as 
follows : — 


First  Lord  of  the  Treasury,     . 

Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  . 

President  of  the  Council, 

Home  Secretary, 

War  and  Colonial  Secretary,  . 

Foreign  Department, 

President  of  the  Board  of  Control, 

Lord  Chancellor,     . 

First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty,   . 

Privy  Seal,       .... 

Ordnance 


Lord  Liverpool. 

Right  Hon.  Nicholas  Vansittart. 

Lord  Harrowby. 

Lord  Sidmouth. 

Lord  Bathurst. 

Lord  Castlereagh. 

Earl  of  Buckinghamshire. 

Earl  of  Eidon. 

Lord  Melville. 

Earl  of  Westmoreland. 

Lord  Mulgrave. 


DANIEL    OCONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  183 

In  a  newspaper,  of  a  date  of  five  or  six  weeks  later,  we  find 
the  following  : — "  Mr.  Robert  Peel  was  introduced  on  Thursday 
last  to  the  Prince  Regent,  as  secretary  of  state  to  the  lord 
lieutenant  of  Ireland." 

On  the  2nd  of  July,  another  aggregate  meeting  of  the 
Catholics  took  place,  to  agree  upon  a  petition  to  be  presented 
in  the  ensuing  session. 

That  some  change  had  occurred  in  their  prospects  within 
the  brief  interval  since  their  preceding  meeting,  will  be  evident 
from  the  extracts  we  are  about  to  give  from  the  newspaper 
reports. 

Lord  Fingal,  on,  as  usual,  taking  the  chair,  congratulated 
the  meeting  on  their  case  "  being  before  parliament — under  the 
favourable  consideration  of  the  legislature,  and  certain  of  being 

ultimately  triumphant The  bringing  the  Penal 

Code  under  notice  was  ensuring  success  to  the  Catholic  cause ; 
because  it  was  impossible  to  consider  its  provisions  without 
having  the  mind  coerced  to  assent  to  its  repeal.  He  did  not 
rejoice  at  their  improved  prospects  because  of  any  peculiar 
benefit  to  himself;  he  did  not  rejoice  at  it  as  opening  new  hopes 
and  expectations  to  the  friends  he  saw  about  him,  or  to  those 
who  were  now  fighting  the  battles  of  England  in  Spain  or  Por- 
tugal ;  his  gratification  sprung  from  another  source — from  his 
anticipation  of  seeing  the  whole  empire  feel,  in  security  and 
prosperity,  the  benefits  of  equal  rights  and  undisturbed  tran- 
quillity." 

His  lordship  was  followed  by  Randal  M'Donnell,  who  spoke 
nearly  in  the  same  strain  ;  and  strongly  urged  the  necessity  of 
continued  and  increased  exertion  on  the  part  of  the  Catholics 
to  back  up  the  eflbrts  of  their  friends  in  parliament. 

He  was  followed  by  Mr.  O'Connell,  who  is  thus  reported  in 
the  Dublin  Evening  Pust  of  the  4th  of  July,  1812  : — 

'*  Mr.  O'Connell  commenced  by  paying  some  very  appropriate 
compliments  to  the  merits  and  exertions  of  the  secretary  to  the 
Catholics  of  Ireland,  Mr.  Hay — a  gentleman  to  whom  we  owed  that 
tribute,  as  well  from  feelings  of  private  friendship  as  from  motives  of 
public  gratitude.  Mr.  Hay  had  devoted  his  life  to  the  service 
of  the   Irish   people,  and   refused   to  receive  any  other  recompense 


184  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

than  what  was  to  be  found  in  the  barren  praises  of  his  country- 
men. 

"  After  a  panegyric  on  the  public  virtues  of  Mr.  Hay,  Mr. 
O'Connell  proceeded.  He  said  the  Catholics  were  assembled  at  the 
most  momentous  period  of  their  history.  We  have  to  contemplate  a 
novel  scene — the  parliament  of  the  United  Kingdom,  after  nearly 
twelve  years  of  neglect  or  rejection,  had  at  length  undertaken  the 
consideration  of  our  great  cause.  One  branch  of  the  legislature,  by 
a  triumphant  majority,  resolved  to  investigate  the  Penal  Code  of 
Ireland,  with  a  view  to  its  repeal ;  and,  perhaps  before  this  hour, 
a  similar  resolution  has  been  adopted  by  the  House  of  Lords. 

"  The  voice  of  the  House  of  Commons  was,  at  all  events,  certain. 
In  it  the  Irish  people  had  a  distinct  pledge,  that  the  question  of  their 
freedom  was  to  be  taken  into  consideration,  for  the  purpose  of  final 
adjustment,  at  an  early  period  of  the  next  session.  The  House  of 
Commons  was  unequivocally  pledged  to  some  measure  of  Emancipa- 
tion. The  effect  of  this  vote  might  perhaps  be  diminished,  when  it 
was  recollected  that,  during  the  present  session,  the  same  honourable 
house  had,  more  than  once,  rejected  all  inquiry  ;  but  times  were 
altered,  and  we  have  now  arrived  at  what  appears  to  be  the  first 
great  step  in  the  progress  to  complete  religious  liberty.  The  pre- 
liminary to  Emancipation  is  over ;  and  Emancipation  itself,  full  and 
entire,  is  the  natural,  if  not  the  necessary  consequence. 

"  Feeling,  as  I  do,  the  great  advance  that  has  been  made  in  this 
national  cause,  I  cannot  avoid  declaring  that  I  am  happy  and  proud 
to  concur  with  your  lordship  in  all  those  sentiments  of  conciliation 
and  confidence  which  you  have  so  powerfully  recommended.  I 
rejoice,  my  lord,  at  our  victory — not  as  the  conquest  of  one  party  over 
another,  nor  with  the  view  to  any  triumph  over  any  other  denomina- 
tion of  my  countrymen,  but  because  I  look  upon  it  as  a  victory 
obtained  by  the  combined  activity  of  aU  classes  of  Irishmen  over  their 
own  prejudices,  and  over  intolerance  and  ilhberality.  It  is  that 
species  of  victory  that  ought  to  endear  the  Irish  Protestant  to  the 
Irish  Catholic,  because  it  has  been  obtained  for  the  benefit  of  the 
latter — principally  by  the  exertions  of  the  former.  It  is  doubly 
dear,  because  it  holds  out  the  prospect  of  mutual  conciliation  and 
mutual  affection. 

"  I,  too,  my  lord,  am  ready  to  confide — I  am  ready  with  you  to 
confide  in  the  great  and  growing  liberality  of  the  British  nation,  in 
the  pledge  of  the  honourable  house,  in  the  promised  vote  of  the  lords, 
in  the  facility  of  the  administration  to  abandon  all  former  notions,  and 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  185 

to  comply  witli  the  temper  of  the  times.  But  let  me  conjure  the 
meeting  to  place  its  first  and  principal  reliance  in  the  determined 
spirit  and  unaltei'able  resolution  to  persevere  until  Emancipation 
shall  be  complete,  never  to  relax  their  efforts  until  religious  freedom 
is  established. 

"  I  may,  without  any  allusion  to  its  military  import,  which  I  dis- 
like, remind  my  countrymen  of  the  advice  of  Cromwell  to  his  soldiers. 
The  night  was  wet,  and  they,  as  usual,  were  engaged  in  prayer. 
'  Confide,'  said  he,  '  in  the  Lord — put  all  your  trust  and  confidence  in 
the  Lord — but  be  quite  sure  to  sleep  upon  your  matchlocks^ 
(Laughter  and  loud  cheering.) 

"  Such,  my  lord,  is  the  confidence  we  ought  to  entertain  at  present. 
In  truth,  every  circumstance  suggests  caution — and  he  knows  little 
of  human  nature  who  i-eposes  with  too  implicit  a  belief  upon  the  pro- 
mises of  any  administration — and  he  has  read  history  to  little  purpose 
who  does  not  doubt  of  the  fair  professions  of  newly-converted  enemies. 
It  is  for  this  that  history  is  useful.  Its  lessons  may  be  neglected,  and 
the  consequence  will  be  just  what  we  see  in  the  great  afiairs  of  the 
nation — distress,  embarrassment,  and  permanent  difiiculty,  produced 
by  the  miserable  repetition  of  temporary  expedients.  The  history  of 
the  Irish  Catholics  warns  us  to  be  cautious  how  we  shaU  proceed. 
Within  the  last  twenty  years  there  were  no  less  than  three  different 
periods  at  which  the  Catholics  might  have  been  emancipated,  if  a 
combination  of  exertion  had  been  used. 

"  Twenty  years,  however,  have  passed  away,  and  we  are  still  slaves. 
My  days — the  blossom  of  my  youth  and  the  flower  of  my  manhood 
have  been  darkened  by  the  dreariness  of  servitude.  In  this  my 
native  land — in  the  land  of  my  sires — I  am  degraded  without  fault  or 
crime,  as  an  alien  and  an  outcast.  We  do  not,  my  lord,  deserve  this 
treatment.  We  are  stamped  by  the  Creator  with  no  inferiority ;  and 
man  is  guilty  of  injustice  when  he  depi'ives  us  of  our  just  station  in 
society.  I  despise  him  who  can  timidly  and  meanly  acquiesce  in  the 
injustice.  Oh,  let  us  at  length  seize  this  opportunity  of  abolishing 
the  oppression  for  ever. 

"  To  avoid  failure  at  present,  let  us  see  whether  we  can  discover 
how  the  Catholics  failed  before.  The  first  occasion  upon  which, 
within  these  last  twenty  years,  the  entire  Emancipation  might  have 
been  obtained,  was  in  the  year  1 793.  In  that  year  great  concessions 
were  certainly  made — great  boons  were  extorted  from  an  adverse 
and  very  unwilling  government ;  but  the  principle  of  servitude,  and 
many  galling  and  insulting  restrictions  remained.     And  why  were 


186  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

they  suffered  to  remain  ?     Simply,  because  the  Catholics  were  not 
sufficiently  combined  amongst  themselves,  and  sufficiently  determined. 

"  I  reproach  none  of  the  actors  in  the  Catholic  cause  at  that  period  ; 
many  names  dear  to  freedom  were  amongst  their  popular  leaders — 
treachery  there  was,  I  am  sure,  none — deceit  there  was,  I  am  con- 
vinced, none  ;  but  leaving,  as  they  did,  so  many  weighty  chains  and 
oppressive  restrictions,  there  certainly  was  a  miserable  failure  of  the 
one  great  object — the  simple  repeal  of  the  acts  restrictive  of  religious 
liberty.  The  Catholics,  then,  were  supposed  not  to  seek  for  the  abo- 
lition of  every  penal  law  ;  they  were  supposed  to  be  ready  to  consent 
to  something  short  of  that  great  measure  ;  they  were  then,  or  had 
lately  been,  much  divided  amongst  themselves,  and  the  result  was, 
that  distraction  in  their  counsels,  and  that  dexterity  in  their  enemies, 
which  have  ever  since  postponed  the  day  of  freedom. 

"  The  second  occasion  on  which  the  Catholics  might  have  been 
emancipated  was  the  Union — but  at  that  period,  also,  the  Catliolics 
were  much  divided  amongst  themselves — the  reign  of  Robesperian 
terror  still  prevailed,  and  the  voice  of  the  Irish  people  was  stifled. 
We  thought  and  acted  differently  upon  this  melancholy  subject,  and, 
amidst  the  bitter  anguish  which  the  memory  of  my  extinguished 
country  excites,  I  have  consolations  both  personal  and  public.  First, 
because  the  opposition  to  the  Union  loas,  {and  I  thank  my  God  for 
it,)  thejirst  act  of  my  political  life ;  and,  secondly,  I  feel  some  com- 
fort that  the  Catholics  did  not  barter  the  constitution  of  their  native 
land  for  advantages  to  themselves.  I  blame  no  person  for  the  failure 
of  emancipation  on  that  occasion ;  on  the  contrary,  I  proudly  rejoice 
that  the  Catholics,  even  those  of  them  who  supported  that  baleful  and 
degrading  measure,  despised  any  idea  of  trafficking  upon,  or  profiting 
by,  the  miseries  of  Ireland. 

"  My  lord,  all  the  Catholics  are  free  from  the  guilt  of  having  parti- 
cipated in  the  sale  of  their  country  ;  and  this  benefit  results,  that 
they  are  bound  by  no  contract  to  continue  their  thraldom.  Nay,  the 
existence  of  the  penal  code  is  soothed  by  the  recollection,  that  in  the 
efforts  made  to  procure  redress,  a  popular  spirit  is  roused,  which,  if 
not  soon  laid  by  the  voice  of  emancipation,  may  generate  a 
determination  to  reanimate  the  fallen  constitution  ! 

"  The  third,  and  last  period,  at  which  the  Catholics  might  have 
been  emancipated,  occurred  since  I  had  the  honour  to  be  an 
humble  labourer  in  the  Catholic  cause  ;  it  was  the  commencement  of 
Mr.  Fox's  administration.  The  year  preceding,  Mr.  Fox  had  most 
powerfully  supported  our  claims  in  the  House  of  Commons  ;  he  sup- 


DAMEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,  M.P.  187 

ported  them,  not  upon  any  narrow  view  of  sect  or  party,  but  upon  the 
great  principle  of  universal  toleration — on  that  principle,  which,  in 
our  country,  would  repeal  her  test  and  corporations'  act,  and  secure 
the  uncontrolled  freedom  of  religious  worship  and  belief,  in  every 
climate,  and  to  every  cast  and  colour. 

"  I  believe,  my  lord,  you  were  present  at  the  liberal  and  manly 
declarations  made  by  Mr.-  Fox,  at  a  meeting  of  our  delegates,  some 
days  previous  to  the  introduction  of  our  first  petition  to  the  imperial 
parliament. — [Lord  Fingal  said  he  was  not  present  at  that  meeting.] 
Well,  my  lord,  Mr.  Scully  certainly  was  ;  we  heard  him  say  so  no 
later  than  yesterday ;  and  when  I  mention  his  name,  I  know  I  can 
use  no  authority  more  likely  to  obtain  the  full  belief  and  confidence 
of  the  Irish  people.  (Loud  cheers.)  Mr.  Scully  was  present  as  a 
delegate  at  those  declarations,  when  Mr.  Fox  proclaimed  the  restric- 
tive code  as  a  crime — religious  liberty  as  a  right.  '  I  cannot,'  said 
that  enlightened  man,  '  I  cannot  consent  to  become  your  advocate, 
unless  you  are  ready  to  concede,  to  all  other  sects,  the  toleration  you 
require  for  yourselves.'  '  We  should  be  unworthy  to  obtain  it,  could 
we  hesitate  to  accede  to  your  terms  ;  we  would  gladly  bestow  on  all 
mankind  what  we  ask  for  ourselves,'  was  the  reply. 

"  L^pon  this  avowed  principle,  in  1805,  Mr.  Fox  supported  the 
claims  of  the  Catholics  :  in  1806,  that  very  Mr.  Fox  became  minister. 
What  could  have  prevented  that  principle  ftom  being  carried  into 
action  ?  The  Catholics  did  not  call  for  it ;  a  mistaken  confidence 
occasioned  them  to  allow  the  only  decisive  moment  to  elapse ;  they 
did  not  press  their  claims.  If  I  am  asked  the  question,  why?  alas! 
I  cannot  tell.  I  was,  myself,  one  of  the  actors  of  the  national  drama, 
and  yet  I  am  quite  ignorant  why  it  was  that  we  did  not  then  insist 
upon  the  recent  pledge  being  redeemed.  I  can  only  account  for  it  by 
drawing  upon  the  unsuspecting  credulity  of  the  Irish  heart.  The 
administration  declared  itself  friendly,  and  we  believed  ;  they  made 
professions,  and  they  obtained  confidence  ;  the  noble  generosity  of  the 
Irish  disposition  could  not  bear  to  doubt  where  it  entertained  affec- 
tion ;  or,  perhaps,  the  very  novelty  of  the  voice  of  kindness  had  its 
charms.  The  Irish  had  been  so  long  used  to  obloquy  and  harshness, 
that  they  received  as  a  boon,  deserving  of  gratitude,  the  mere  lan- 
guage of  conciliation.  The  result  ^vas,  that  the  favourable  moment 
of  compelling  that  administration  either  to  emancipate  or  to  resign 
was  passed  by,  and  our  servitude  continues  to  this  hour. 

"  Let  us  profit  by  those  lessons — from  the  errors  of  those  periods  ; 
let  our  present  conduct  be  free ;  our  course  is  plain  and  simple.     It 


188  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

consists  not  in  relaxing,  but  in  redoubling  our  efforts — in  pressing 
forward  again  as  a  people  should  do  who  deserve  liberty.  Let  us 
enter  into  no  collateral  discussions,  no  dishonourable  stipulations. 
Under  the  banner  of  '  The  Simple  Repeal,'  Ireland  has  already  once 
gloriously  triumphed.  It  is  a  word  of  good  omen.  Perhaps  she  is 
fated  again  to  progress  in  the  cause  of  her  freedom,  under  the  same 
standard.  '  The  Simple  Repeal'  should  be  re-echoed  from  north  to 
south,  from  east  to  west ;  and  should  we  again  fail,  we  shall,  at  least, 
have  the  consolation  to  know,  that  we  deserved  success,  and  that  the 
failure  cannot  be  attributed  to  us. 

"  But  shall  we  fail  ?  Think  you  are  we  to  owe  our  freedom  to 
Lord  Castlereagh  and  to  Lord  Sidmouth?  Let  us,  my  lord,  beware 
of  raising  too  high  the  expectations  of  the  country.  In  such  a  people 
as  the  Irish,  the  effects  of  disappointment  may  be  terrific.  They  are 
too  apt  to  believe  that  which  they  wish.  They  are  too  prone  to 
rely ;  and  when  the  hour  of  political  treachery  has  come  ;  when  the 
promised  '  graces'  are  withdrawn  from  light,  the  sudden  violence  of 
disappointed  expectation  is  not  likely  to  be  controlled  by  the  influence 
of  reason.  Already  we  have  seen  the  effects  of  blasting  the  hopes  of 
the  Irish  people.  In  the  year  1794,  Lord  Fitzwilliam  arrived  in 
Ireland,  with  conciliation  and  Emancipation  in  his  train  ;  he  pro- 
claimed our  freedom  as  at  hand ;  the  Irish  parliament  sung  respon- 
sive ;  there  was  not  a  dissentient  voice  ;  unanimity  prevailed  in  both 
houses ;  the  Catholic  Bill  was  actually  brought  in  under  the  most 
favourable  auspices  ;  if  it  had  passed,  the  Union  was  hopeless.  Mr. 
Pitt,  who  prepared  for  that  measure  from  a  distance,  saw  the  neces- 
sary consequence  of  abolishing  religious  dissensions  in  Ireland ;  the 
promised  liberality  was  withdrawn  ;  Lord  Fitzwilliam  was  recalled  ; 
and,  in  the  space  of  one  short  month,  that  veiy  parliament 
which  bid  the  Catholic  arise  to  freedom,  and  the  country  to  concord, 
declared,  that  dissensions  should  be  perpetual,  and  slavery  eternal. 

"  History  relates  the  sequel.  In  a  short  time  the  land  was 
deluged  by  native  blood,  and  rebellion  reared  its  horrid  crest.  My 
Lord  Castlereagh  interposed,  and  terminated  the  scene,  according  to 
the  plot  of  the  original  projectors,  by  the  Union.  That  same 
Castlereagh  again  governs.  Is  it  safe,  my  lord,  is  it  prudent,  to 
exaggerate  the  people's  hopes,  to  give  them  anything  like  a  certainty, 
which  may  meet  nothing  but  disappointment?  Let  us  spare  our 
country  from  the  horrid  consequences  of  outraged  feelings.  Tliis 
is  the  last  resort  of  public  liberty  in  Europe — the  only  country 
where  the  sword  alone,  the  tyrant's  law,  does  not   prevail.     I,  my 


DANIEL    o'cONiyTELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  189 

lord,  for  one,  am  determined  not  to  survive  the  representative  system 
of  government  in  this  country.  Surely  we  ought  not  endanger  it, 
by  rousing  those  angiy  passions  which  must  result  from  betrayed 
confidence.  We  should  warn  the  people  not  to  believe  over  much 
those  who  are  hackneyed  in  duplicity  and  treachery. 

"  The  opposition  to  Catholic  Emancipation  has  assumed  a  new 
shape ;  bigotry  and  intolerance  have  been  put  to  the  blush,  or 
covered  with  ridicule  ;  every  body  laughs  at  Jack  Giffard  and  Paddy 
Duignan ;  and  their  worthy  compeer  and  colleague  in  England,  Sir 
William  Scott,  does  no  longer  venture  to  meet,  with  adverse  front, 
the  justice  of  our  cause.  He  may,  indeed,  talk  of  setting  our  question 
at  rest — he  may  declaim  upon  the  moral  inferiority  of  the  Irish 
Catholics ;  but  let  him  rest  assured,  that  so  long  as  his  children — if  he 
have  any — so  long  as  the  swarthy  race  of  his  Scotts  are  placed,  by 
law,  on  any  superiority  to  the  Irish  Catholics,  so  long  will  it  be 
impossible  to  put  the  question  to  rest.  It  never  can — it  never  shall 
rest,  save  in  unqualified,  unconditional  Emancipation.  As  to  the  moral 
inferiority,  I  shall  not  dispute  the  point  with  him,  but  I  trust  no 
Catholic  judge  will  ever  be  found  in  this  country  with  such  an 
accommodating  disposition  as  to  decide  the  precise  same  question  in 
two  different  ways,  as  we  are  told  that  learned  gentleman  has  done, 
with  the  question  of  '  paper  blockades.'  Let  him,  I  am  sure  I 
consent,  direct  his  sapient  opposition,  in  his  present  prudent  course 
of  retarding  the  discussion  of  the  right  and  justice  of  our  claims,  by 
introducing  other  topics.  The  points  of  delay— the  resting  places 
are  obvious ;  and  when  the  present  are  exhausted,  I  rely  on  the 
malignity  of  our  oppressors  to  invent  new  terms  for  this  purpose. 

"  First,  there  was  the  Veto — that,  indeed,  was  soon  put  down  by 
the  unanimous  voice  of  the  Catholic  people,  who,  besides  other 
reasons,  reaUy  could  not  see,  in  the  actual  selection  made  by  the 
Irish  government  of  persons  to  fill  the  offices  belonging  of  right  to 
them,  anything  to  tempt  them  to  confer,  on  that  government,  the 
nomination  of  upwards  of  thirty  other  offices  of  emolument  and 
honour.  If  hostility  to  the  Irish  people  be  a  recognized  recommenda- 
tion to  all  other  employments,  is  it  likely  that,  in  one  alone,  virtue 
and  moral  fitness  should  obtain  the  appointment  ?  It  was  too  gross 
and  glaring  a  presumption  in  an  administration,  avowing  its  abhor- 
rence for  every  thing  Irish,  to  expect  to  be  allowed  to  interfere  with 
the  religious  discipline  of  the  Irish  Catholic  Church. 

"  Driven  from  any  chance  of  the  Veto,  our  enemies  next  suggested 
'  the  arrangement,'  as  it  was  called  ;  but  this  half  measure  had  but 


190  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

few  supporters.  It  was  not  sufficiently  strong  for  the  zealous 
intolerants  ;  its  advantages  were  not  so  obvious  to  the  profligate  ;  it 
was  met  by  this  plain  reply — that  we  knew  of  no  real  inconvenience 
that  could  possibly  arise  from  the  present  system  of  the  government 
of  our  church  ;  but  if  any  existed,  it  were  fitter  to  be  treated  of  by 
the  venerable  prelates  of  that  church,  who  understood  the  subject 
best,  than  by  ministers  who  wished  to  turn  every  thing  into  an  engine 
of  state  policy. 

"'The  arrangement'  was  then  soon  forgotten,  and  now,  my  lord, 
we  have  new  terms  stated — those  are  '  sanctions  and  securities. 
We  are  now  told  we  cannot  be  emancipated  without  '  sanctions  and 
securities.'  What  are  '  sanctions  ?'  They  are  calculated,  I  presume, 
to  do  a  great  deal  of  mischief,  because  they  are  quite  unintelligible* 
As  to  '  securities,'  indeed  I  can  understand  that  word  ;  and  I  am 
quite  ready  to  admit  that  securities  are  necessary  ;  they  are  neces- 
sary against  the  effects  upon  a  passive,  but  high-minded  people — of 
continued  insult  and  prolonged  oppr'^ssion.  They  are  necessary,  in 
a  sinking  state,  against  the  domestic  disturbances  and  organized 
disaffection  which  prevail  in  England — against  the  enormous  and 
increasing  power  of  the  enemy — against  dilapidated  resources, 
expiring  commerce,  depreciated  currency,  and  accumulating  expendi- 
ture— against  the  folly,  the  incapacity,  the  want  of  character  of  the 
administration — against  all  those  evils  of  which  there  is  courage  to 
speak — against  that  domestic  insult,  respecting  which  it  is  prudent  to 
be  silent — against  all  these,  '  securities'  are  necessary,  and  they  are 
easy  to  be  found — they  are  to  be  found  in  conciliation  and  emancipa- 
tion— their  rectitude  and  justice.  The  brave,  the  generous,  the  enthusi- 
astic people  of  Ireland  are  ready  to  place  themselves  in  the  breach 
that  has  been  made  in  their  country  ;  they  claim  the  post  of  honour, 
that  is,  the  post  of  utmost  danger ;  they  are  ready  to  secure  the 
throne  and  the  constitution,  and  all  they  require  in  return  is, 
to  be  recognized  as  men  and  human  beings  in  this  their  native 
land. 

"  Do  not,  then,  I  would  say  to  any  minister — do  not  presume  to 
insult  them,  by  attempting  to  treat  them  as  maniacs,  to  be  secured 
only  by  ropes  and  chains.  Alas !  their  only  insanity  is  their  devo- 
tion to  you.  Tell  them  not  that  the  more  they  are  free  the  less  will 
they  be  grateful ;  tell  them  not  that  the  less  you  have  to  fear  from 
their  discontent,  the  more  strictly  will  you  bind  them.  Oppress  them 
if  you  please,  but  hesitate  before  you  deem  it  prudent  thus  to  insult 
their  first,  their  finest  feelings. 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  191 

"  Having  disposed  of  '  Veto,  arrangement,  sanctions,  and  securi- 
ties,' there  remains  but  one  resource  for  intolerance ;  the  classic 
Castlereajrh  has  struck  it  out ;  it  consists  in — what  do  you  think  ? 
Why,  in  '  hitches.'  Yes,  *  hitches'  is  the  elegant  word  which  is  now 
destined  to  protract  our  degradation.  It  is  in  vain  that  our  advo- 
cates have  increased  ;  in  vain  have  our  foes  been  converted ;  in  vain 
has  "William  Wellesley  Pole  become  our  warm  admirer.  Oh,  how 
beautiful  he  must  have  looked  advocating  the  Catholic  cause !  and 
his  conversion,  too,  has  been  so  satisfactory — he  has  accounted  for  it 
upon  such  philosophic  principles.  Yes,  he  has  gravely  informed  us 
that  he  was  all  his  life  a  man  detesting  committees ;  you  might  see 
by  him  that  the  name  of  a  committee  discomposed  his  nerves,  and 
excited  his  most  irritable  feelings  ;  at  the  sound  of  a  committee  he 
was  roused  to  madness.  Now,  the  Catholics  had  insisted  upon  acting 
by  a  committee,  the  naughty  papists  had  used  nothing  but  profane 
committees,  and,  of  course,  he  proclaimed  his  hostility.  But  in 
proportion  as  he  disliked  committees,  so  did  he  love  and  approve  of 
aggregate  meetings — respectable  aggregate  meetings !  Had  there 
been  a  chamber  at  the  Castle  large  enough  for  an  aggregate  meeting 
he  would  have  given  it.  Who  does  not  see  that  it  is  quite  right 
to  doat  upon  aggi'egate  meetings  and  detest  committees  by  law,  logic, 
philosophy,  and  science  of  legislation  ?  All  recommend  the  one  and 
condemn  the  other ;  and,  at  length,  the  Catholics  have  had  the  good 
sense  to  call  their  committee  a  board,  to  make  their  aggregate  meet- 
ings more  frequent.  They,  therefore,  deserve  Emancipation  ;  and, 
with  the  blessing  of  God,  he  (Mr.  Pole)  would  confer  it  on  them ! 
(laughter  and  cheers.) 

"  But,  seriously,  let  us  recollect  that  Wellesley  Pole  is  the  brother 
of  one  of  our  most  excellent  friends — of  Marquis  Wellesley,  who  had 
so  gloriously  exerted  himself  in  our  cause — who  had  manfully 
abandoned  one  administration  because  he  could  not  procure  our 
liberty,  and  rejected  power  under  any  other,  unless  formed  on  the 
basis  of  Emancipation  ;  and  who  had,  before  this  hour  in  which  I 
speak,  earned  another  unfading  laurel,  and  the  eternal  affection  of 
the  Irish  people,  by  his  motion  in  the  House  of  Lords.  The 
eloquence  and  zeal  and  high  character  of  that  noble  marquis  seemed 
all  that  was  wanting  to  ensure,  at  no  remote  period,  our  success. 
He  knows  little  of  the  Irish  heart  who  imagines  that  his  disinterested 
services  will  ever  be  forgotten  ;  no,  they  are  graved  on  the  soul  of  Irish 
gratitude,  and  will  ever  live  in  the  memory  of  the  finest  people  on 
the  earth.     Lord  Castlereagh,  too,  has  declared  in  our  favour,  with 


192  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

the  prudent  reserve  of  '  tlie  hitches ;'  he  is  our  friend,  and  has  been 
so  these  last  twenty  years — our  secret  friend — as  he  says  so,  upon 
his  honour  as  a  gentleman,  we  are  bound  to  believe  him.  If  it  be  a 
merit  in  the  minister  of  a  great  nation  to  possess  profound  discretion, 
this  merit  Lord  Castlereagh  possesses  in  a  supereminent  degree.  Why, 
he  has  preserved  this  secret  with  the  utmost  success.  Who  ever 
suspected  that  he  had  such  a  secret  in  his  keeping?  The  whole 
tenor  of  his  life,  every  action  of  his  negatived  the  idea  of  his  being 
our  friend  ;  he  spoke  against  us — he  voted  against  us — he  wrote  and 
he  published  against  us ;  and  it  turns  out  now  that  he  did  all  this 
merely  to  show  how  well  he  could  keep  a  secret.  Oh,  admirable 
contriver  !  oh,  most  successfiU  placeman  !  most  discreet  and  confiden- 
tial of  ministers ! 

"  But  what  are  his  '  hitches'  ?  They  constitute  another  '  secret.' 
I  think,  however,  I  understand  them.  In  the  morning  papers  of  this 
day,  there  appeared  a  call  upon  the  Protestants  of  the  county  of  Sligo 
to  come  forward  in  support  of  the  establishment.  It  looks  like  the 
tocsin  of  intolerance ;  the  name  signed  to  it  is  John  Irwin.  Who 
this  person  is  I  know  not,  and  I  have  not  had  time  to  inquire.  If  he 
be  an  Irish  Protestant  gentleman  of  independence,  I  respect,  whilst 
I  pity  his  errors  and  his  prejudices ;  I  would  apply  no  other  remedy 
to  him  but  the  voice  of  mild  reasoning  and  argument,  shaped  by  the 
spirit  of  conciliation.  If  he  be  an  hireling  of  the  administration, 
and  that  this  is  the  first  demonstration  of  the  '  hitches,'  I  proclaim 
his  miserable  attempt  to  the  contempt  of  the  enlightened  Protestants 
of  Ireland — its  fate  is  certain ;  the  government  may  give  it  a 
wretched  importance,  but  they  never  can  afford  it  strength  ;  they  may 
give  it  '  sanction,'  but  they  cannot  procure  '  security'  for  bigotry.  The 
Protestants,  Presbyterians,  and  the  Quakers  of  Ireland,  have  too 
recently  evinced  the  noble  liberality  of  their  sentiments — their  sense 
of  our  wrongs,  and  their  sympathy  in  the  sufferings  of  their  brethren, 
who  are,  in  their  turn,  ready  to  die  in  their  defence.  The  Irish  Pro- 
testants of  every  denomination  are  too  just  and  too  wise  to  be  duped 
into  the  yell  of  bigotry.  The  result  of  the  attempt  is  certain.  Even 
in  1792,  when  intolerance  stood  in  formidable  array,  a  similar  effort 
to  stem  our  cause  only  covered  the  projectors  and  actors  with 
immortal  ridicule.  Mr.  Byrne  and  Mr.  Keogh  proceeded  then  as  we 
shall  now  proceed ;  and  we  have  the  advantage  of  being  cheered  by 
the  great  majority  of  those  very  Protestants  whom  the  intolerants 
seek  to  dispose  against  us. 

"  I  said   I  understood  Castlereagh's  '  hitches,'  and  I  proclaim  this 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,  M.P.  193 

as  one  of  them  ;  I  know,  too,  we  shall  have  new  persecutions.  Our 
legal  persecutors,  who  hunt  us  with  a  keenness  only  increased  by  their 
disappointment,  and  rendered  more  rancorous  by  our  prospect  of 
success — good  and  godly  men — are  at  this  moment  employed  in  pro- 
jecting fresh  scenes  of  prosecution.  Every  part  of  the  press  that  has 
dared  to  be  free  will  surely  be  punished,  and  public  spirit  and  libe- 
rality will,  in  every  case  that  can  be  reached  by  the  arts  of  state 
persecution,  expiate  its  offence  in  a  pi'ison.  Believe  me,  my  prophetic 
feai's  are  not  vain :  I  know  the  managers  well,  and  place  no  confi- 
dence in  their  holy  seeming.  Again,  England  affords  another  oppor- 
tunity of  extending  the  '  hitches,'  under  the  pretence  of  making  laws 
to  prevent  rebellion  there  ;  the  administration  will  suspend  the  habeas 
corpus,  for  the  purpose  of  crushing  emancipation  here ;  and  thus  will 
illustrate  the  contrast  between  the  veiy  words  which  would  require 
twelve  simpletons  to  swear  meant  the  same  thing.  The  new  laws 
occasioned  by  English  rioters  will  pass  harmless  over  their  heads, 
and  fall  only  upon  you.  It  would  be  inconsistent  if  Castlereagh,  the 
worthy  successor  of  Clare  and  John  Foster,  used  any  other  plan 
towards  Ireland.  The  '  hitches,'  the  '  hitches,'  plainly  mean  all  that 
can  be  raised  of  venal  outcry  against  us,  and  all  that  can  be  enacted 
of  arbitrary  law,  to  prevent  our  discussions. 

"  Still,  still  we  have  resources — we  have  rich  resources  in  those 
affectionate  sentiments  of  toleration  which  our  Irish  Protestant 
brethren  have  proudly  exhibited  during  the  present  year.  The  Irish 
Protestants  wiU  not  abandon  or  neglect  their  own  work ;  it  is  they 
who  have  placed  us  on  our  present  elevation — their  support  has 
rendered  the  common  cause  of  our  common  country  triumphant. 
Our  oppressors,  yielding  an  unwilling  assent  to  the  request  of  the 
Protestants  of  Ireland,  may  compensate  themselves  by  abusing  us  in 
common ;  they  may  style  us  agitators — Mr.  Canning  calls  us 
agitators  with  ulterior  vieivs — but  those  Protestant  agitators  are  the 
best  friends  to  the  security  and  peace  of  the  country  ;  and  to  us, 
popish  agitators — for  I  own  it,  my  lord,  I  am  an  agitator,  and  we 
solemnly  promise  to  continue  so,  until  the  period  of  unqualified 
emancipation — until  '  the  simple  repeal.'  As  to  us,  agitators  amongst 
the  Catholics,  we  are  become  too  much  accustomed  to  calumny  to 
be  terrified  at  it ;  but  how  have  we  deserved  reproach  and  obloquy  ? 
How  have  we  merited  calumny  ?  Of  myself,  my  lord,  I  shall  say 
nothing — I  possess  no  talents  for  the  office  ;  but  no  man  shall  prevent 
the  assertion  of  my  rigid  honesty.  I  am,  it  is  true,  the  lowliest  of 
the  agitators  ;  but  there  are,  amongst  them,  men  of  the   first  rate 

o 


194  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

talents,  and  of  ample  fortunes — men  of  the  most  ancient  families, 
and  of  hereditary  worth — men  of  public  spirit  and  of  private  virtue  ; 
and,  above  all,'  men  of  persevering,  undaunted,  and  unextinguishable 
love  of  their  countiy — of  their  poor,  degraded,  insulted  country — to 
that  country,  will  I  say  of  all  the  agitators,  with  the  exception  of 
my  humble  self — 

"  'Boast,  Erin,  boast  them  tameless,  frank,  and  free.' 

"  Out  of  the  hands  of  those  agitators,  however,  the  government  is 
desirable  to  take  the  people,  and  the  government  is  right.  Out  of  the 
sphere  of  your  influence,  my  lord,  the  people  can  never  be  taken,  for 
reasons  which,  because  you  are  present,  I  shaU  not  mention,  but  which 
are  recognised  by  the  hearts  of  the  Irish  nation.  (Loud  cheering.) 
But  out  of  our  hands  the  people  may  easily  be  taken.  They  are 
bound  to  us  only  by  the  ties  of  mutual  sufferings  and  mutual 
sympathies.  We  are  the  mere  straws  which  are  borne  upon  the  torrent 
of  public  wrongs  and  public  griefs.  Restore  their  rights  to  the 
people — conciliate  the  Irish  nation,  which  is  ready  to  meet  you  more 
than  half  way,  and  the  power  of  the  agitators  is  gone  in  an  instant. 
I  do  certainly  feel  the  alarm  expressed  at  the  agitation  of  the 
question  of  Catholic  rights  as  a  high  compliment ;  it  clearly  points 
out  the  course  we  ought  to  pursue.  Let  us  rouse  the  Irish  people, 
from  one  extreme  to  the  other  of  the  island,  in  this  constitutional 
cause.  Let  the  Catholic  combine  with  the  Protestant,  and  the 
Protestant  with  the  Catholic,  and  one  generous  exertion  sets  every 
angry  feeling  at  rest,  and  banishes,  for  ever,  dissension  and  division. 
The  temptation  to  invasion  will  be  taken  away  from  the  foreign 
enemy — the  pretext  and  the  means  of  internal  commotion  will  be 
snatched  from  the  domestic  foe — our  country,  combined  in  one 
great  phalanx,  will  defy  every  assault,  and  we  shall  have  the  happi- 
ness of  obtaining  real  security,  by  that  course  of  conciliation, 
which  deserves  the  approbation  of  every  sound  judgment,  and 
must  insure  the  applause  of  every  feeling  heart — we  shall  confer  an 
honour  on  ourselves,  and  insure  the  safety  of  our  country." 

The  hopes  which  the  Catholics  bad  conceived  from  the 
recent  unexpected  turn  their  affairs  had  taken  in  the  House  of 
Commons  were  checked,  but  not,  however,  seriously  damped, 
by  a  vote  of  the  House  of  Lords,  refusing  the  following  motion 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  195 

of  the  Marquis  of  Wellesley    (similar  to  that   made    by   Mr. 
Canning  in  the  lower  House)  : — 


"That  the  House  of  Lords  will,  early  in  the  next  session  of  parliament,  take 
into  their  most  serious  consideration  the  state  of  the  laws  aflfecting  his  Majesty's 
Roman  Catholic  subjects  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  with  a  view  to  such  a 
final  and  conciliatory  adjustment  as  may  be  conducive  to  the  peace  and  strength 
of  the  United  Ivlngdom,  to  the  Protestant  Establishment,  and  to  the  general 
satisfaction  and  concord  of  all  classes  of  his  Majesty's  subjects." 


This  defeat  was  actually  considered  the  reverse  of  discourag- 
ing, as  the  bigots  had  a  majority  of  only  one,  the  numbers 
having  been  126  against  125,  for  the  motion,  a  proportion 
which  the  favourers  of  the  Catholics  had  never  at  all  approached 
on  any  former  occasion,  in  the  upper  House.  Corresponding 
to  these  hopes  were  the  fears  of  the  opposite  party.  The  Irish 
Orangemen,  and  their  English  abettors,  saw  that  there  was  no 
time  to  be  lost,  to  prop  up  again  and  strengthen  the  barriers  of 
ascendency,  that  now  seemed  about  to  give  way.  Accordingly, 
both  in  England  and  in  Ireland,  an  active  no-popery  agitation 
was  once  more  set  a-going. 

In  England  the  government  newspapers,  the  Morning  Post 
and  the  Courier,  carried  on  the  campaign  actively,  with  articles 
against  the  Catholic  claims  and  the  Catholics  themselves,  as 
bitter  and  as  truculent  as  even  those  in  which  the  same 
Morning  Post,  and  its  present  coadjutors,  the  Morning  Herald 
and  Standard,  are  wont  to  indulge  against  the  Repeal  agitation 
and  the  repealers. 

In  Ireland  the  Orange  lodges  were  encouraged  with  almost 
direct  openness,  and  hallooed  on  by  the  government.  The 
latter  resolved  themselves  to  have  an  active  part  in  the  crusade, 
and  commenced  proceedings  by  an  ex-officio  from  the  Irish 
Attorney  General  Saurin,  against  Mr.  Fitzpatrick,  printer 
and  publisher  of  Mr.  Scully's  celebrated  work,  entitled  "  A 
Statement  of  the  Penal  Laws  which  aggrieve  the  Catholics  of 
Ireland." 

A  renewed  zeal  on  the  part  of  the  Orangemen  was  manifested 
(according  to  the  Freeman  s  Jouriial)  even  by  the  manner  in 
which  they  adorned  the  statue  of  King  William  the  Third,  in 
College-green,   on  the   12th  of  Jaily,  in  this  year.     As  these 


196  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

classic  decorations  are  going  out  of  memory,  we  will  give  an 
account  of  them  : — 

*'  Yesterday  the  statue  of  King  William  was  bedizened  with 
an  old  rusty  Orange  mantle,  and  some  second-hand  dirty 
Orange  ribbons.  Surmounting  his  majesty's  laurelled  brow, 
there  appeared  a  faded  Orange  lily,  and  from  the  truncheon 
hand  a  bit  of  a  stick  protruded,  from  which  there  depended  a 
tattered  Orantje  flao:." 

The  custom  of  thus  magnificently  adorning  the  "  Deliverer  s" 
statue  originated,  about  1795,  with  a  half  crazed  bookseller 
in  College-green,  of  the  name  of  MacKenzie,  who,  from  the 
zeal  with  which  he  paraded  his  wares  on  the  statue,  on  the 
appointed  days  of  faction-rejoicings,  was  nicknamed  "  King 
William's  MilHner."  This  absurdity,  if  a  practice  invented  and 
carried  on  in  the  spirit  of  vulgar  insult  to  the  Catholics  may  be 
so  simply  designated,  was  annually  renewed,  until  about  the 
year  1815,  when  the  cloak,  flag,  and  ribbons  disappeared. 
But  it  has  been  only  within  the  last  few  years,  that  is,  since  the 
liberal  corporation  came  into  power,  that  the  handsome  marble 
carvings  of  the  pedestal,  and  also  portions  of  the  figure  of  the 
rider  and  his  horse,  have  ceased  to  be  deformed  with  daubs  of 
glaring  orange  and  blue. 

Every  one  is  familiar  with  the  feat  of  blackening  the  statue 
with  tar  and  pitch,  perpetrated  the  night  before  one  of  its 
anniversaries  of  decoration  ;  and  the  dismay  and  rage  which  the 
begrimed  appearance  of  their  idol  occasioned  among  the 
Orangemen  of  high  and  low  degree.  Some  ten  years  ago 
another  trick  was  played  off — the  king  being  blown  from  his 
horse  by  the  explosion  of  fulminating  silver,  as  is  supposed. 
The  authors  of  this  last  attempt  have  never  been  traced ;  but  it 
is  pretty  confidently  imputed  to  the  lads  of  the  College,  anxious 
to  make  mischief  and  create  a  disturbance — a  laudable  design, 
in  which  they  did  not,  however,  succeed. 

The  indications  of  no-popery  feeling  which  we  have  noticed, 
drew  from  the  Catholic  board  the  following:  resolution,  to  which 
they  gave  extensive  circulation  : — 


'to 


"Resolved — That  the  Catholic    Board  do   meet   upon   the  first  and  third 
Saturday  of  every  mouth,  until  the  first  of  November ;  and  that  their  secretary 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,  M.P.  197 

do  write  circular  letters  to  all  the  members,  announcing  their  serious  apprehen- 
sions that  a  religious  persecution  is  about  to  commence  in  Ireland,  apparently 
sanctioned  by  the  administration ;  and  inculcating  the  necessity  of  frequent  deli- 
berations, and  constant  activity  on  the  part  of  the  Catholic  body,  in  obviating 
the  approaching  calamity,  and  in  the  firm  assertion  of  their  rights,  at  this 
fearful  and  important  crisis." 

The  propriety  of  passing  such  a  resolution  was  much  ques- 
tioned at  the  time  by  those  who  had  installed  themselves  as 
"  patrons,"  as  it  were,  of  the  Catholics.  The  usual  cant  was 
talked  about  it  as  being  "  too  strong,"  "  very  injudicious,"  &c. ; 
but  there  is  no  doubt  that  circumstances  fully  bore  out  its  aver- 
ments, and  not  only  entirely  justified  it,  but  even  rendered  it 
necessary,  as  a  means  of  awakening  to  their  danger,  the 
threatened  objects  of  this  new  persecution. 

The  anticipated  danger  was  not  only  from  the  chances  of  open, 
undisguised  persecution,  but  from  the  design,  now  again  revived, 
and  confidently  spoken  of  as  about  to  be  pushed  by  the  minister, 
of  bringing  forward  some  measure  of  state-interference  with 
Catholic  ecclesiastical  matters,  either  by  the  notorious  "  Veto" 
proposition,  or  some  other  equally  to  be  deprecated  and  resisted. 

A  stout  response  to  the  alarm-cry  from  Dublin  was  promptly 
returned  from  various  parts  of  the  country,  but  especially  from 
Limerick.  On  Friday,  the  24th  of  July  in  this  year  (1812),  a 
large  meeting  of  the  Catholics  of  the  city  and  county  was  held 
for  the  purpose,  at  the  Commercial  Buildings,  George's-street, 
Limerick,  at  which  Mr.  O'Connell,  then  upon  circuit,  attended, 
and  made  the  speech  we  are  about  to  give.  T.  R.  Ryan,  of 
Scarteen,  Esq.,  was  in  the  chair,  and  the  meeting  was  opened 
with  a  speech  from  Mr.  William  Roche,  the  same  gentleman 
who  represented  the  city  of  Limerick,  on  Repeal  principles,  from 
the  passing  of  the  Reform  Bill,  until  1841.  After  expressing 
general  concurrence  with  the  proceedings  of  the  Catholic  Board 
in  Dublin,  confident  hopes  of  the  success  of  the  cause,  in  the 
next  session  of  parliament — gratitude  to  its  friends  in  that 
body — and  aversion  to  the  idea  of  what  were  called  "  securities," 
being  given  in  return  for  Catholic  emancipation,  he  read  the 
resolutions  that  had  been  prepared,  and  moved  their  adoption. 
We  give  the  chief  among  them  : — 

"3.  Resolved — That  however  injurious  the  policy  wlrich  laboured  to  sever 
the  Prince  from  the  people,  the  recent  declarations  in  parliament  revive  our 


198  MEMOIR     AND    SPEECHES    OF 

long-cherishecl  hopes,  that  that  ilhistrious  personage  will  adhere  to  those  prin- 
ciples, Avhicli,  by  establishing  the  harmony  and  happiness  of  the  subject,  would 
best  ensure  the  stability  of  tlie  throne,  and  the  prosperity  of  the  empire. 

"  4.  That,  at  a  time  when  continental  Europe  is  yielding  her  last  sigh,  and 
all  the  rivulets  of  rational  liberty  are  nearly  lost  in  the  flood  of  universal  domi- 
nation ;  and  v.'hen  these  countries,  the  last  refuge  of  European  freedom,  are 
threatened  with  no  less  than  total  annihilation,  we  consider  the  continuance 
of  political  disabilities  as  tending  to  paralyze  the  energies  of  the  state,  and  to 
further  the  views  of  our  implacable  enemy. 

"And  we,  therefore,  consider,  that  it  would  be  a  criminal  apathy  in  us,  at 
this  perilous  crisis,  to  cease  our  earnest  application  to  the  legislature,  to 
embrace,  within  the  protection  of  equal  laws,  all  and  every  description  of  his 
majesty's  subjects, 

"  5.  That  having,  with  regret,  observed  a  design  to  mar  the  progress  of  our 
just  claims,  by  propositions  intended  solely  to  raise  alarms  against  us,  we  feel 
called  upon  to  declare  to  the  empire  and  to  the  world — 

"  That  toe  will  enter  into  no  compromise  for  our  rights,  incompatible  with  the 
integrity  of  our  religion. 

"  That  the  best  security  we  can  give,  is  our  attachment  to  the  constitution, 
which  we  are  solemnly  and  irrevocably  sworn  to  defend — our  proved  invariable 
fidelity  to  the  laws,  guaranteed  by  our  properties,  our  lives,  and  the  very  prin- 
ciples of  the  religion  we  profess." 

These,  with  other  resolutions,  were  seconded  by  Mr.  A.  F. 
O'Neill,  and  passed  unanimously. 

"  Counsellor  O'Connell  then  rose,  (adds  the  Limerick  Even- 
ing Post,  whose  report  we  quote,)  and  delivered  a  speech, 
the  most  brilliant  and  argumentative  we  have  ever  heard.  This 
accomplished  and  powerful  orator  continued,  for  upwards  of  an 
hour,  to  address  the  assembly  as  follows,  and  was  cheered 
almost  at  the  close  of  every  sentence,  with  loud  and  rapturous 
applause  : — 

"  I  feel  it  my  duty,  as  a  professed  agitator,  to  address  the  meeting. 
It  is  merely  in  the  exercise  of  my  office  of  agitation,  that  I  think  it 
necessary  to  say  a  few  words.  For  any  purpose  of  illustration  or 
argument,  further  discourse  is  useless :  all  the  topics  which  the  pre- 
sent period  suggested,  have  been  treated  of  with  sound  judgment,  and 
a  rare  felicity  of  diction,  by  my  respected  and  talented  friend  (Mr. 
Roche),  all  I  shall  do  is,  to  add  a  few  observations  to  what  has  fallen 
from  that  gentleman  ;  and  whilst  I  sincerely  admire  the  happy  style 
in  which  he  has  treated  those  subjects,  I  feel  deep  regi'et  at  being 
unable  to  imitate  his  excellent  discourse. 

"  And,  first,  let  me  concur  with  him  in  congratulating  the  Catholics 
of  Limerick  on  the  progress  our  great  cause  has  made  since  we  were 
last  assembled.  Since  that  period  our  cause  has  not  rested  for  sup- 
port on  the  efforts  of  those  alone  wlio  were   immediately  interested ; 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,     M.P.  199 

no,  our  Protestant  brethren  throughout  the  land  have  added  their 
zealous  exertions  for  our  emancipation.  They  have,  with  admirable 
patriotism,  evinced  their  desire  to  conciliate  by  serving  us,  and  I  am 
sure  I  do  but  justice  to  the  Catholics,  when  I  proclaim  our  gratitude, 
as  written  on  our  hearts,  and  to  be  extinguished  only  with  our  lives. 
{Hear,  hear.) 

"  Nor  has  the  support  and  the  zeal  of  our  Protestant  brethren  been 
vain  and  barren.  No,  it  has  been  productive  of  great  and  solid 
advantages ;  it  has  procured,  for  the  cause  of  religious  liberty,  the 
respect  even  of  the  most  bigoted  of  our  opponents  ;  it  has  struck 
down  English  prejudice ;  it  has  convinced  the  mistaken  honest ;  it 
has  terrified  the  hypocritical  knaves  ;  and,  finally,  it  has  pronounced 
for  us,  by  a  great  and  triumphant  majority,  from  one  of  the  branches 
of  the  legislature,  the  distinct  recognition  of  the  propriety  and  the 
necessity  of  conceding  justice  to  the  great  body  of  the  Irish  people. 
(Hear,  hear,  hear.) 

"Let  us,  therefore,  rejoice  in  our  mutual  success  ;  let  us  rejoice  in 
the  near  approach  of  freedom  ;  let  us  rejoice  in  the  prospect  of  soon 
shaking  off  our  chains,  and  of  the  speedy  extinction  of  our  grievances. 
But  above  all,  let  us  rejoice  at  the  means  by  which  these  happy 
effects  have  been  produced ;  let  us  doubly  rejoice,  because  they  afford 
no  triumph  to  any  part  of  the  Irish  nation  over  the  other — that  they 
are  not  the  result  of  any  contention  amongst  ourselves ;  but  consti- 
tute a  victory,  obtained  for  the  Catholics  by  the  Protestants — that 
they  prove  the  liberality  of  the  one,  and  require  the  eternal  gratitude 
of  the  othei' — that  they  prove  and  promise  the  eternal  dissolution  ot 
ancient  animosities  and  domestic  feuds,  and  affoi'd  to  every  Christian 
and  to  every  patriot,  the  cheering  certainty  of  seeing  peace,  harmony, 
and  benevolence  prevail  in  that  country,  where  a  wicked  and  per- 
verted policy  has  so  long  and  so  fatally  propagated  and  encouraged 
dissension,  discord,  and  rancour.     (Loud  cheering.) 

"  We  owe  it  to  the  liberality  of  the  Irish  Protestants — to  the  zeal 
of  the  'Irish  Presbyterians — to  the  friendly  exertion  of  the  Irish 
Quakers  ;  we  owe,  to  the  cordial  re- union  of  every  sect  and  denomi- 
nation of  Irish  Christians,  the  progress  of  our  cause".  They  have 
procured  for  us  the  solemn  and  distinct  promise  and  pledge  of  the 
House  of  Commons- — they  almost  obtained  for  us  a  similar  declara- 
tion from  the  House  of  Lords.  It  was  lost  by  the  petty  majority  of 
one — it  was  lost  by  a  majority,  not  of  those  who  listened  to  the  absurd 
prosings  of  Lord  Eldon,  to  the  bigoted  and  turbid  declamation  of  that 
English  Chief  Justice,  whose  sentiments  so  forcibly  recall  the  memory 


200  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

of  the  star-chambei' ;  not  of  those  who  were  able  to  compare  the 
vapid  or  violent  folly  of  the  one  party,  with  the  statesman-like  senti- 
ments, the  profound  arguments,  the  splendid  eloquence  of  the  Marquis 
"Wellesley.  (Hear,  hear.)  Not  of  those  who  heard  the  reasonings  of 
our  other  illustrious  advocates  ;  but  by  a  majority  of  men  who  acted 
upon  pi'econceived  opinions,  or,  from  a  distance,  carried  into  effect 
their  bigotry,  or,  perhaps,  worse  propensities — who  availed  them- 
selves of  that  absurd  privilege  of  the  peerage,  which  enables  those  to 
decide  who  have  not  heard — Avhich  permits  men  to  pronounce  upon 
subjects  they  have  not  discussed — and  allows  a  final  determination  to 
precede  argument.     (Hear.) 

"  It  was  not,  however,  to  this  pi'ivilege  alone,  that  our  want  of  suc- 
cess was  to  be  attributed.  The  very  principle  upon  which  the  present 
administration  has  been  formed,  was  brought  into  immediate  action, 
and  with  success  ;  for,  in  the  latter  periods  of  the  present  reign, 
every  administration  has  had  a  distinct  principle  upon  which  it  was 
formed,  and  which  serves  the  historian  to  explain  all  its  movements. 
Thus,  the  principle  of  the  Pitt  administration  was — to  deprive  the 
people  of  all  share  in  the  government,  and  to  vest  all  poiver  and 
authority  in  the  crown.  In  short,  Pitt's  views  amounted  to  unquali- 
fied despotism.  This  great  object  he  steadily  pursued  through  his  ill- 
starred  career.  It  is  true  he  encouraged  commerce,  but  it  was  for 
the  purposes  of  taxation  ;  and  he  used  taxation  for  the  purposes  of 
corruption ;  he  assisted  the  merchants,  as  long  as  he  could,  to  grow 
rich,  and  they  lauded  him ;  he  bought  the  people  with  their  own 
money,  and  they  praised  him.  Each  succeeding  day  produced  some 
new  inroad  on  the  constitution ;  and  the  alarm  which  he  excited,  by 
reason  of  the  bloody  workings  of  the  French  revolution,  enabled  him 
to  rule  the  land  with  uncontrolled  sway ;  he  had  bequeathed  to  his 
successor  the  accumulated  power  of  the  crown — a  power  which  must 
be  great,  if  it  can  sustain  the  nonentities  of  the  present  administra- 
tion.    (Loud  and  continued  cheering.) 

"  The  principle  of  Pitt's  administration  was  despotism — the  prin- 
ciple of  Perceval's  administration  was  peculating  bigotry — bigoted 
peculation  !  In  the  name  of  the  Lord  he  plundered  the  people.  (A 
laugh.)  Pious  and  enlightened  statesman !  he  would  take  their  money 
only  for  the  good  of  their  souls.     (Bursts  of  laughter.) 

"  The  principle  of  the  present  administration  is  still  more  obvious. 
It  has  unequivocally  disclosed  itself  in  all  its  movements — it  is  simple 
and  single — it  consists  va.  falsehood.  Falsehood  is  the  bond  and  link 
that  connects  this  ministry  in  office.     Some  of  them  pretend  to  be  our 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  201 

friends — you  know  it  is  not  true — they  are  only  our  worse  enemies 
for  the  hypocrisy.  They  declare  that  the  Catholic  question  is  no 
longer  opposed  by  the  cabinet — that  it  is  left  to  the  discretion  of  each 
individual  retainer.  The  fact  is  otherwise — and  their  retainers, 
though  not  commanded^  as  formerly,  are  carefully  advised  to  vote 
against  us.     (Hear,  hear.) 

"  The  minister.  Lord  Castlereagh,  is  reported  to  have  said  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  that  in  the  years  1797  and  1798,  there  was  no 
torture  in  Ireland,  to  the  knowledge  of  government !  Is  it  really 
possible  that  such  an  assertion  was  used?  You  hear  of  it  with 
astonishment.  All  Ireland  must  shudder,  that  any  man  could  be 
found  thus  to  assert.  Good  God !  of  what  materials  must  that  man 
be  made  who  could  say  so  ?  I  restrain  my  indignation — I  withhold 
all  expressions  of  surprise — the  simple  statement  that  such  an  asser- 
tion was  used,  exceeds,  in  reply,  the  strongest  language  of  reproba- 
tion. But  there  is  no  man  so  stupid  as  not  to  recognise  the  principle 
which  I  have  so  justly  attributed  to  this  administration. 

"  "What !  No  torture !  Great  God !  No  torture  !  Within  the  walls 
of  your  city  was  there  no  torture  ?  Could  not  Colonel  Vereker 
have  informed  Lord  Castlereagh,  that  the  lash  resounded  in  the 
streets  even  of  Limerick,  and  that  the  human  groan  assailed  the 
wearied  ear  of  humanity  ?  Yet,  I  am  ready  to  give  the  gallant 
colonel  every  credit  he  deserves ;  and,  therefore,  I  recall  to  your 
grateful  recollection  the  day  when  he  risked  his  life  to  punish  one  of 
the  instruments  of  torture.  (Hear,  hear.)  Colonel  Vereker  can  tell 
whether  it  be  not  true,  that  in  the  streets  of  your  city,  the  servant  of 
his  relation,  Mrs.  Rosslewen,  was  not  tortured — whether  he  was  not 
tortured  first,  for  the  crime  of  having  expressed  a  single  sentiment 
of  compassion,  and  next  because  Colonel  Vereker  interfered  for 
him.    (Hear,  hear.) 

"  But  there  is  an  additional  fact,  which  is  not  so  generally  known, 
which,  perhaps,  Colonel  Vereker  himself  does  not  know,  and  which 
I  have  learned  from  a  highly  respectable  clergyman,  that  this  sad 
victim  of  the  system  of  torture,  which  Lord  Castlereagh  denied, 
was,  at  the  time  he  was  scourged,  in  an  infirm  state  of  health — that 
the  flogging  inflicted  on  him  deprived  him  of  all  understanding,  and 
that  within  a  few  months  he  died  insane,  and  without  having  recovered 
a  shadow  of  reason.    (Hear.) 

"  But  why,  out  of  the  myriads  of  victims,  do  I  select  a  solitary 
instance  ?  Because  he  was  a  native  of  your  city,  and  his  only 
ofience  an  expressiou  of  compassion.     I  might  tell  you,  did  you  not 


202  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

already  know  it,  that  in  Dublin  there  were,  for  weeks,  three  perma- 
nent triangles,  constantly  supplied  with  the  victims  of  a  promiscuous 
choice  made  by  the  army,  the  yeomanry,  the  police  constables,  and 
the  Orange  lodges  ;  that  the  shrieks  of  the  tortured  must  have  literally 
resounded  in  the  state  apartments  of  the  Castle  ;  and  that  along  by 
the  gate  of  the  Castle  yard,  a  human  being,  naked,  tarred,  feathered, 
with  one  ear  cut  oif,  and  the  blood  streaming  from  his  lacerated 
back,  has  been  hunted  by  a  troop  of  bai'barians  ! 

"  Why  do  I  disgust  you  with  these  horrible  recollections  ?  You  want 
not  the  proof  of  the  principle  of  delusion  on  which  the  present  adminis- 
tration exists.  In  your  own  alFairs  you  have  abundant  evidence  of  it. 
The  fact  is,  that  the  proxies  in  the  Lords  would  never  have  produced  a 
.majority  even  of  one  against  Lord  Wellesley's  motion,  but  for  the 
exertion  of  the  vital  principle  of  the  administration.  The  ministry 
got  the  majority  of  one.  The  pious  Lord  Eldon,  with  all  his 
conscience  and  his  calculations,  and  that  immaculate  distributor  of 
criminal  justice.  Lord  Ellenborough,  were  in  a  majority  of  one. 
By  what  holy  means  think  you  ?  Why,  by  the  aid  of  that  which  can- 
not be  described  in  dignified  language — by  the  aid  of  a  lie — a  false, 
positive,  palpable  lie  ! 

"  This  manoeuvre  was  resorted  to — a  scheme  worthy  of  its 
authors — they  had  perceived  the  effects  of  the  manly  and  dignified 
resolutions  of  the  18th  of  June.  These  resolutions  had  actually 
terrified  our  enemies,  whilst  they  cheered  those  noble  and  illustrious 
friends  who  had  preferred  the  wishes  and  wants  of  the  people  of 
Ireland  to  the  gratification  of  paltry  and  disgraceful  minions.  The 
manoeuvre — the  scheme,  was  calculated  to  get  rid  of  the  effect  of 
those  resolutions,  nay,  to  turn  their  force  against  us,  and  thus  was 
the  pious  fraud  effected.   (Hear.) 

"  There  is,  you  have  heard,  a  newspaper,  in  the  permanent  pay  of 
peculation  and  corruption,  printed  in  London,  under  the  name  of 
the  Courier,  a  paper  worthy  the  meridian  of  Constantinople,  at  its 
highest  tide  of  despotism.  This  paper  was  directed  to  assert  the 
receipt  of  a  letter  from  Dublin,  from  excellent  authority,  declaring, 
I  know  not  how  many  peers,  sons  of  peers,  and  baronets  had  retracted 
the  resolutions  of  the  18th  of  June;  that  those^  resolutions  were 
carried  by  surprise,  and  that  they  had  been  actually  rescinded  at  a 
subsequent  meeting. 

"  Never  did  human  baseness  invent  a  more  gross  untruth ;  never 
did  a  more  unfounded  lie  fall  from  the  father  of  falsehood  ;  never 
did  human  turpitude  submit  to  become  the  veliicle   of  so   '  glaring' 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  203 

a  dereliction  of  truth.  But  the  Courier  received  its  pay,  and  it 
was  ready  to  earn  the  wages  of  its  prostitution.  It  did  so — it  pub- 
lished the  foul  falsehoods,  with  the  full  knowledge  of  their  falsehood ; 
it  published  them  in  two  editions,  the  day  before  and  the  day  of  the 
debate — at  a  period  when  inquiry  was  useless — when  a  contradiction 
from  authority  could  not  arrive ;  at  that  moment  this  base  trick  was 
played,  through  the  intervention  of  that  newspaper,  upon  the  British 
public ! 

"  Will  that  public  go  too  far,  when  they  charge  this  impure  strata- 
gem on  those  whose  purposes  it  served  ?  Why,  even  in  this  country, 
the  administration  deems  it  necessary  to  give,  for  the  support  of  one 
miserable  paper,  two  places — one  of  five,  and  the  other  of  eight  hun- 
dred a  year — the  stamp  duty  remitted — the  proclamations  paid  for  as 
advertisements — and  a  permanent  bonus  of  one  thousand  pounds  per 
annum !  If  the  bribe  here  be  so  high,  what  must  it  be  in  England, 
where  the  toil  is  so  much  greater  ?  And,  think  you,  then,  that  the 
Courier  published,  unsanctioned  by  its  paymasters,  this  useful  lie  ? 

"  I  come  now  to  the  next  stage  in  the  system  of  delusion  ;  it 
is  that  which  my  friend,  Mr.  O'Neil,  has  noticed.  He  has  powerfully 
exposed  to  you  the  absurdity  of  crediting  the  ministerial  newspapers, 
when  they  informed  you  that  the  member  for  Limerick  had  stated  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  that  the  commercial  interests  of  Limerick 
were  opposed  to  the  Catholic  claims.  Sir,  for  my  part,  I  entirely 
agree  with  Mr.  O'Neil ;  I  am  sure  Colonel  Vereker  said  no  such 
thing  ;  he  is  a  brave  man,  and,  therefore,  a  man  of  truth  ;  he  is  pro- 
bably a  pleasant  friend,  and  he  has  those  manly  traits  about  him, 
which  make  it  not  unpleasant  to  oppose  him  as  an  enemy  ;  I  like  the 
candour  of  his  character,  and  our  opposition  to  him  should  assume 
the  same  frankness,  and  openness,  and  perfect  determination.  He 
well  knows  that  a  great  part  of  the  commercial  interests  of  Limerick 
is  in  the  hands  of  the  Catholics — that  the  Quakers  of  Limerick,  who 
possess  almost  the  residue  of  the  trade,  are  friendly  to  us,  and  that, 
with  the  exception  of  the  '  tag,  rag  and  bob-tail'  of  the  corporation— 
(loud  laughter)  there  is  not  to  be  found  amongst  the  men  who  ought 
to  be  his  constituents,  a  single  exception  to  liberality.  (Repeated 
applause.) 

"  There  remains  another  delusion  ;  it  is  the  darling  deception  of 
this  ministry — that  which  has  reconciled  the  toleration  of  Lord 
Castlereagh  with  the  intolerance  of  Lord  Liverpool ;  it  is  that  which 
has  sanctified  the  connection  between  both,  and  the  place-procuring, 
prayer-mumbling  Wilberforce  ;  it  consists  in  sanctions  and  securities. 


204  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

The  Catholics  may  be  emancipated,  say  ministers  in  public,  but  they 
must  give  securities ;  by  securities,  say  the  same  ministers  in  private, 
to  their  supporting  bigots,  we  mean  nothing  definite,  but  something 
that  shall  certainly  be  inconsistent  with  the  popish  religion — nothing 
shall  be  a  security  which  they  can  possibly  concede — and  we  shall 
deceive  them  and  secure  you,  whilst  we  carry  the  air  of  liberality  and 
toleration.     (Hear.) 

"  And  can  there  be  any  honest  man  deceived  by  the  cant  and  cry 
for  securities  ? — is  there  any  man  that  believes  that  there  is  safety  in 
oppression,  contumely,  and  insult,  and  that  security  is  necessary 
against  protection,  liberality,  and  conciliation  ? — does  any  man 
really  suppose,  that  there  is  no  danger  from  the  continuance  of  unjust 
grievance  and  exasperating  intolerance ;  and  that  security  is  wanting 
against  the  eifects  of  justice  and  perfect  toleration?  Who  is  it  that 
is  idiot  enough  to  believe,  that  he  is  quite  safe  in  dissension,  disunion, 
and  animosity,  and  wants  a  protection  against  harmony,  benevolence, 
and  charity  ? — that  in  hatred  there  is  safety — in  affection,  ruin  ? — 
that  now,  that  we  are  excluded  from  the  constitution,  we  may  be 
loyal — but  that  if  we  were  entrusted,  personally,  in  its  safety,  we 
shall  wish  to  destroy  it  ?     (Hear,  hear.) 

"  But  this  is  a  pitiful  delusion  :  there  was,  indeed,  a  time,  when 
'  sanctions  and  securities'  might  have  been  deemed  necessary — when 
the  Catholic  was  treated  as  an  enemy  to  man  and  to  God — when  his 
property  was  the  prey  of  legalized  plunder — his  religion,  and  its 
sacred  ministers,  the  object  of  legalized  persecution ! — when,  in  defi- 
ance and  contempt  of  the  dictates  of  justice,  and  the  faith  of  treaties — 
and  I  attest  the  venerable  city,  in  which  I  stand,  that  solemn  treaties 
were  basely  violated — the  English  faction  in  the  land  turned  the 
Protestant  into  an  intolerant  and  murderous  higot,  in  order  that  it 
might,  in  security,  plunder  that  very  Protestant,  and  oppress  his  and 
our  common  country  !  Poor  neglected  Ireland !  At  that  period,  secu- 
rities might  be  supposed  wanting ;  the  people  of  Ireland — the  Catholic 
population  of  Ireland  were  then  as  brave  and  as  strong,  comparatively, 
as  they  are  at  present ;  and  the  country  then  afforded  advantages  for 
the  desultory  warfare  of  a  valiant  peasantry,  which,  fortunately,  have 
since  been  exploded  by  increasing  cultivation. 

'*  At  the  period  to  which  I  allude,  the  Stuart  family  was  still  in 
existence ;  they  possessed  a  strong  claim  to  the  exaggerating  alle- 
giance and  unbending  fidelity  of  the  Irish  people.  Every  right  that 
hereditary  descent  could  give  the  royal  race  of  Stuart,  they  possessed — 
in  private  life,  too,  they  were  endeared  to  the  Irish,  because  they 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P,  205 

were,  even  the  worst  of  them,  gentlemen.  But  they  had  still  stronger 
claims  on  the  sympathy  and  generosity  of  the  Irish :  they  had  been 
exalted,  and  were  fallen — they  had  possessed  thrones  and  kingdoms, 
and  were  then  in  poverty  and  humiliation.  All  the  enthusiastic 
sympathies  of  the  Irish  heart  were  roused  for  them — and  all  the 
powerful  motives  of  personal  interest  bore,  in  the  same  channel,  the 
restoration  of  their  rights — the  triumph  of  their  religion,  the  restitu- 
tion of  their  ancient  inheritances,  would  then  have  been  the  certain 
and  immediate  consequences  of  the  success  of  the  Stuart  family,  in 
their  pretensions  to  the  throne. 

"  At  the  period  to  which  I  allude,  the  Catholic  clergy  were  bound 
by  no  oath  of  allegiance ;  to  be  a  dignitary  of  the  Catholic  church  in 
Ireland,  was  a  transportable  felony — and  the  oath  of  allegiance  was 
so  intermingled  with  religious  tenets,  that  no  clergyman  or  layman 
of  the  Catholic  persuasion  could  possibly  take  it.  At  that  period,  the 
Catholic  clergy  were  all  educated  in  foreign  countries,  under  the  eye 
of  the  pope,  and  within  the  inspection  of  the  house  of  Stuart.  From 
fifty-eight  colleges  and  convents,  on  the  Continent,  did  the  Catholic 
clergy  repair  to  meet,  for  the  sake  of  their  God,  poverty,  persecution, 
contumely,  and,  not  unfrequently,  death,  in  their  native  land.  (Hear, 
hear.)  They  were  often  hunted  like  wild  beasts,  and  never  could 
claim  any  protection  from  the  law !  (Hear,  hear.)  That — that  was 
a  period,  when  securities  might  well  have  been  necessary — when 
sanctions  and  securities  might  well  have  been  requisite. 

"But  what  was  the  fact? — what  was  the  truth  which  history 
vouches  ?  Why,  that  the  clergy  and  laity  of  the  Irish  Catholics, 
having  once  submitted  to  the  new  government — having  once  plighted 
their  ever  unbroken  faith  to  King  William  and  his  successors — hav- 
ing once  submitted  to  that  great  constitutional  principle,  that  in 
extreme  eases  the  will  of  the  people  is  the  sole  law — that  in  extreme 
cases  the  people  have  the  clear  and  undoubted  right  to  cashier  a 
tyrant,  and  provide  a  substitute  on  the  throne — the  Irish  Catho- 
lics, having  fought  for  their  legitimate  sovereign,  until  he,  himself, 
and  not  they,  fled  from  the  strife — adopted,  by  treaty,  his  English 
successor,  though  not  his  heir — transferred  to  that  successor,  and  the 
inheritors  of  his  throne,  their  allegiance.  They  have  preserved  their 
covenant — with  all  the  temptations  and  powerful  motives  to  disaffec- 
tion, they  fulfilled  their  part  of  the  social  contract,  even  in  despite  of 
its  violation  by  the  other  party.     (Loud  and  continued  applause.) 

"  How  do  I  prove  the  continued  loyalty  of  the  Catholics  of  Ireland 
under  every  persecution  ?     I  do  not  appeal  for  any  proofs  to  their 


206  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

own  records,  however  genuine — I  appeal  merely  to  the  testimony  of 
their  rulers  and  their  enemies — (hear,  hear) — I  appeal  to  the  letters 
of  Primate  Boulter — to  the  state-papers  of  the  humane  and  patriotic 
Chesterfield.  I  have  their  loyalty  through  the  admissions  of  every 
secretary  and  governor  of  Ireland,  until  it  is  finally  and  conclusively 
put  on  record  by  the  legislature  of  Ireland  itself.  The  relaxing 
statutes  expressly  declare,  that  the  penal  laws  ought  to  be  repealed — 
not  from  motives  of  policy  or  growing  liberality,  but  (I  quote  the 
words,)  '  because  of  the  long-continued  and  uninterrupted  loyalty  of 
the  Catholics.'  This  is  the  consummation  of  my  proof — and  I  defy 
the  veriest  disciple  of  the  doctrine  of  delusion  to  overturn  it. 
(Applause.) 

"  But  as  the  Catholics  were  faithful  in  those  dismal  and  persecuting 
periods — when  they  were  exasperated  by  the  emaciating  cruelty  of 
barbarous  law  and  wretched  policy — as  they  were  then  faithful,  not- 
withstanding every  temporal  and  every  religious  temptation  and 
excitement  to  the  contrary,  is  it  in  human  credulity  to  believe  my 
Lord  Castlereagh,  when  he  asserts  that  securities  are  now  necessary? 
Now,  that  the  ill-fated  house  of  Stuart  is  extinct — and  had  it  not  been 
extinct  I  should  have  been  silent  as  to  what  their  claims  were — 
noiv,  that  the  will  of  the  people,  and  the  right  of  hereditary  succes- 
sion are  not  to  be  separated — now,  that  the  Catholic  clergy  are  edu- 
cated in  Ireland,  and  are  all  bound  by  their  oaths  of  allegiance  to 
that  throne  and  constitution,  which,  in  the  room  of  persecution,  gives 
them  protection  and  security — noiv,  that  all  claims  upon  forfeited 
property  are  totally  extinguished  in  the  impenetrable  night  of  obscu- 
rity and  oblivion — now,  that  the  Catholic  nobility  and  gentry  are  in 
the  enjoyment  of  many  privileges  and  franchises,  and  that  the  full 
participation  of  the  constitution  opens  upon  us  in  close  and  cheering 
prospect — shall  we  be  told  that  securities  are  now  expedient,  though 
they  were  heretofore  unnecessary  ?  Oh  !  it  is  a  base  and  dastardly 
insult  upon  our  understandings  and  on  our  principles,  and  one  which 
each  of  us  would,  in  private  life,  resent — as  in  public  we  proclaim  it 
to  the  contempt  and  execration  of  the  universe.     (Great  applause.) 

"  Long  as  I  have  trespassed  on  you,  I  cannot  yet  close :  I  have  a 
word  to  address  to  you  upon  your  own  conduct.  The  representative  for 
your  city.  Colonel  Vereker,  has  openly  opposed  your  liberties — he  has 
opposed  even  the  consideration  of  your  claims.  You  are  beings,  to 
be  sure,  with  human  countenances,  and  the  limbs  of  men — but  you 
are  not  men — the  iron  has  entered  into  your  souls,  and  branded  the 
name  of  slave  upon  them,  if  you  submit  so  be  thus  trampled  on  !    His 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  207 

opposition  to  you  is  decided — meet  bim  with  a  similar,  and,  if  pos- 
sible, a  superior  hostility.  You  deserve  not  freedom — you,  citizens 
of  Limerick,  with  the  monuments  of  the  valovir  of  your  ancestors 
around  you — you  are  less  than  men,  if  my  feeble  tongue  be  requisite 
to  rouse  you  into  activity.  (Applause.)  Your  city  is,  at  present, 
nearly  a  close  borough — do  but  will  it,  and  you  make  it  free !  (Con- 
tinued applause.) 

"  I  know  legal  obstacles  have  been  thrown  in  your  way — I  know 
that,  for  months  past,  the  Recorder  has  sat  alone  at  the  sessions — that 
he  has  not  only  tried  cases,  in  the  absence  of  any  other  magistrate, 
which  he  is  authorised  by  law  to  do,  but  that  he  has  solely  opened 
and  adjourned  the  sessions,  which,  in  my  opinion,  he  is  clearly  unwar- 
ranted in  doing  ;  he  has,  by  this  means,  I  know,  delayed  the  registry 
of  your  freeholds,  because  two  magistrates  are  necessary  for  that 
purpose :  I  have,  however,  the  satisfaction  to  tell  you,  that  the  Court 
of  King's  Bench  will,  in  the  next  term,  have  to  determine  on  the 
legality  of  his  conduct,  and  of  that  of  the  other  charter  magistrates, 
who  have  banished  themselves,  I  undei'stand,  from  the  Sessions' 
Court,  since  the  registry  has  been  spoken  of!  They  shall  be  served 
with  the  regular  notices  ;  and,  depend  upon  it,  this  scheme  cannot 
long  retard  you.     (Great  applause.) 

"  I  speak  to  you  on  this  subject  as  a  lawyer — you  can  best  judge 
in  what  estimation  my  opinion  is  amongst  you — but  such  as  it  is,  I 
pledge  it  to  you,  that  you  can  easily  obviate  the  present  obstacles  to 
the  registry  of  your  freeholds.  I  can  also  assure  you  that  the  con- 
stitution of  your  city  is  perfectly  free — that  the  sons  of  freemen,  and 
all  those  who  have  served  an  apprenticeship  to  a  freeman,  are  all 
entitled  to  their  freedom,  and  to  vote  for  the  representation  of  your 
city.     (Hear,  hear,  hear.) 

*'  I  can  tell  you  more  :  that  if  you  bring  your  candidate  to  a  poll, 
your  adversary  will  be  deprived  of  any  aid  from  non-resident  or 
occasional  freemen  ;  we  will  strike  off  his  list  the  freemen  from  Gort 
and  from  Galway,  the  freemen  from  the  band,  and  many  from  the 
battalion  of  the  city  of  Limerick  militia.    (Loud  cries  of  'hear,  hear.') 

"  In  short,  the  opening  of  the  borough  is  a  matter  of  little  difficulty. 
If  you  will  but  form  a  committee,  and  collect  funds,  in  your  opulent 
city,  you  will  soon  have  a  representative  ready  to  obey  your  voice — 
you  cannot  want  a  candidate.  If  the  emancipation  bill  passes  next 
sessions,  as  it  is  so  likely  to  do,  and  that  no  other  candidate  offers,  I 
myself  will  bring  your  present  number  to  the  poll.  (Loud  applause.) 
I,  probably,  will  have  little  chance  of  success— but  I  will  have  the 


208  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

satisfaction  of  showing  this  city  and  the  county,  what  the  freeborn 
mind  might  achieve  if  it  were  properly  seconded.  (Here  the  eloquent 
and  patriotic  speaker  was  interrupted  for  some  minutes,  by  thunder- 
ing applause.) 

"  I  conclude  by  conjuring  you  to  exert  yourselves ;  waste  not  your 
just  resentments  in  idle  applause  at  the  prospect  I  open  to  you ;  let 
not  the  feeling  of  the  moment  be  calumniated  as  a  hasty  ebullition  of 
anger ;  let  it  not  be  transitory,  as  our  resentments  generally  are,  but 
let  us  remember  ourselves,  our  children,  and  our  country  !  (Hear, 
hear,  hear.) 

"  Let  me  not,  however,  close,  without  obviating  any  calumny  that 
may  be  flung  upon  my  motives.  I  can  easily  pledge  myself  to  you 
that  they  are  disinterested  and  pure — I  trust  they  are  more.  My 
object  in  the  attainment  of  emancipation  is  in  nothing  personal,  save 
in  the  feelings  which  parental  love  inspires  and  gratifies.  I  am,  I 
trust,  actuated  by  that  sense  of  Christianity  which  teaches  us  that  the 
first  duty  of  our  religion  is  benevolence  and  universal  charity ;  I  am, 
I  know,  actuated  by  the  determination  to  rescue  our  common  country 
from  the  weakness,  the  insecurity,  which  dissension  and  religious  ani- 
mosity produce  and  tend  to  perpetuate ;  I  wish  to  see  the  strength  of 
the  island — this  unconquered,  this  unconquerable  island — combined 
to  resist  the  mighty  foe  of  freedom,  the  extinguisher  of  civil  liberty, 
who  rules  the  Continent  from  Petersburg  to  the  verge  of  the  Irish 
bayonets  in  Spain.  (Loud  and  repeated  applause.)  It  is  his  interest, 
it  is  a  species  of  duty  he  owes  to  his  family — to  that  powerful  house, 
which  he  has  established  on  the  ruins  of  the  thrones  and  dominations 
of  Europe — to  extinguish,  for  ever,  representative  and  popular 
government  in  these  countries ;  he  has  the  same  direct  intent  which 
the  Roman  general  had  to  invade  our  beloved  country — '  Ut  libertas 
veluti  et  conspectu.'  His  power  can  be  resisted  only  by  combining 
your  physical  force  with  your  enthusiastic  and  undaunted  hearts. 
(Hear,  hear.) 

"  There  is  liberty  amongst  you  still.  I  could  not  talk  as  I  do,  of 
the  Liverpools  and  Castlereaghs,  of  his  court,,  even  if  he  had  the  folly 
to  employ  such  things — I  wish  he  had ;  you  have  the  protection  of 
many  a  salutary  law — of  that  palladium  of  personal  liberty — the  trial 
by  jury.  I  wish  to  ensure  your  liberties,  to  measure  your  interests 
on  the  present  order  of  the  state,  that  we  may  protect  the  very  men 
that  oppress  us.     (Loud  applause.) 

"  Yes,  if  Ireland  be  fairly  roused  to  the  battle  of  the  country  and 
of  freedom,    all   is   safe.     Britain  has  been   often    conquered :  the 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  209 

Romans  conquered  her — the  Saxons  conquered  her — the  Normans 
conquered  her — in  short,  whenever  she  was  invaded,  she  was  con- 
quered. But  our  country  was  never  subdued ;  we  never  lost  our 
liberties  in  battle,  nor  did  we  ever  submit  to  armed  conquerors.  It  is 
true,  the  old  inhabitants  lost  their  country  in  piece-meal,  by  fraud 
and  treachery ;  they  relied  upon  the  faith  of  men,  who  never,  never 
observed  a  treaty  with  them,  until  a  new  and  mixed  race  has  sprung 
up,  in  dissension  and  discord  ;  but  the  Irish  heart  and  soul  still  pre- 
dominate and  pervade  the  sons  of  the  oppressors  themselves.  The 
generosity,  the  native  bravery,  the  innate  fidelity,  the  enthusiastic 
love  of  whatever  is  great  and  noble — those  splendid  characteristics  of 
the  Irish  mind  remain  as  the  imperishable  relics  of  our  country's 
former  greatness — of  that  illustrious  period,  when  she  was  the  light 
and  the  glory  of  barbarous  Europe — when  the  nations  around  sought 
for  instruction  and  example  in  her  numerous  seminaries — and  when 
the  civilization  and  religion  of  all  Europe  were  preserved  in  her 
alone.     (Continued  cheering.) 

*'  You  will,  my  friends,  defend  her — you  may  die,  but  you  cannot 
yield  to  any  foreign  invader.  (Hear,  hear.)  Whatever  be  my  fate,  I 
shall  be  happy,  whilst  I  live,  in  reviving  amongst  you  the  love  and 
admiration  of  your  native  land,  and  in  calling  upon  Irishmen — no 
matter  how  they  may  worship  their  common  God — to  sacrifice  every 
contemptible  prejudice  on  the  altar  of  their  common  country.  (Great 
applause.)  For  myself,  I  shall  conclude,  by  expressing  the  sentiment 
that  throbs  in  my  heart — I  shall  express  it  in  the  language  of  a  young 
bard  of  Erin,*  and  my  beloved  friend,  whose  delightful  muse  has  the 
sound  of  the  ancient  minstrelsy — 

"  Still  shalt  thou  be  my  midnight  dream — 
Thy  glory  still  my  waking  theme ; 
And  ev'ry  thought  and  wish  of  mine, 
Unconquer'd  Erin,  shall  be  thine  !" 

This  speech  procured  him  from  the  meeting  the  following 
compliment : 

"  Eesolved — That  our  sincere  thanks  are  hereby  returned  to  Daniel  O'Connell, 
barrister-at-law,'for  his  luminous  and  patriotic  speech  this  day  ;  as  well  as  for 
his  manly  and  distinguished  exertions  at  all  times,  in  the  cause  of  his 
country." 

The  legal  opinions  delivered  by  Mr.  O'Connell  in  this  speech 

*  Charles  Phillips,  Esq.,  author  of  the  poem  entitled  "  The  Emerald  Isle," 
then  at  the  Irish,  subsequently  for  many  years  at  the  EngUsh  bar,  and  now  one 
of  the  District  Commissioners  of  Bankruptcy  in  England. 


210  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

were  all  verified  in  the  courts  of  law.  The  city  of  Limerick, 
from  being  a  nomination  borough,  was,  by  means  of  legal  deci- 
sions, thrown  open  to  the  popular  control,  as  Mr.  O'Connell 
had  pointed  out.  The  expense  was  enormous;  but  it  was  cheer- 
fully borne  by  the  patriotic  citizens.*  The  populous  triumph 
was  complete,  and  Mr.  O'Connell  had  the  delightful  satisfac- 
tion to  have  roused  the  sleeper,  and  presided  over  the  victory. 

Various  other  Catholic  meetings  were  held  in  counties  and 
towns  of  Ireland  during  the  summer  and  autumn  of  1812,  at 
which  resolutions  to  the  same  general  effect  as  those  we  have 
recorded  of  the  Limerick  meeting,  were  unanimously  adopted. 
If  in  these  and  other  demonstrations  of  popular  opinion  in  Ire- 
land one  sentiment  more  than  another  was  peculiarly  marked,  it 
was  that  of  determined  hostility  to  the  proposition  of  giving  in 
exchange  for  Emancipation  any  of  what  were  insultingly  termed 
"  securities  ,"  especially  and  particularly  that  of  which  we  shall 
have  soon  to  treat  fully,  the  "  veto  "  proposition. 

Mr.  O'Connell  was  enabled  to  attend  the  Cork  "city  and 
county"  meeting,  held  on  Friday,  21st  August,  at  the  North 
Parish  Chapel,  William  Coppinger,  jun.,  Esq.,  of  Barry's  Court, 
in  the  chair ;  but  the  Cork  paper  (the  Intelligencer\^\iic\\  con- 
tained the  proceedings,  states  that  it  was  unable  to  report  with 
precision  his  speech,  and  so  passed  it  over  entirely,  with  a  few 
complimentary  sentences. 

In  the  list  of  resolutions  here  passed  we  find  the  following  : 

"  15th.  Eesolved — That  our  cordial  thanks  are  hereby  offered  to  our  patriotic 
fellow-Catholic  Counsellor  O'Connell,  as  the  tribute  of  our  admiration  and 
applause,  for  his  unceasing  and  energetic  exertions  in  the  common  cause  ;  and 
for  his  able  and  eloquent  speech  delivered  here  this  day." 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  the  period  of  the  parliamentary  recess 
in  the  year  1812,  was  by  no  means  a  season  of  repose  and  quiet, 
either  to  the  Catholics  or  their  opponents.  The  events  of  the 
session  just  gone  by  had  startled  and  effectually  aroused  both 
parties.  At  a  moment  when  a  ministry,  generally  known  to  be 
adverse  to  all  concession,  had,  after  the  double  shock  of  the  loss 


*  The  father  of  the  present  Mayor  of  Limerick,  ISIr.  Edmund  Ryan,  sub- 
scribed £oOO ;  and  another  young  gentleman,  a  Mr.  Patrick  Creagh,  a  similar 
sum.  The  Verekers  were  thrown  out ;  but,  alas  !  tiie  people,  in  the  excess  of 
their  enthusiasm,  put  Spring  Rice  in  his  place.     What  a  practical  blunder. 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  211 

of  their  head  and  a  vote  of  want  of  confidence  carried  against 
them  in  the  lower  house,  been  suddenly  reseated  in  office,  with 
renewed  power,  and,  as  it  was  natural  to  suppose,  unabated 
inveteracy,  Catholic  and  anti-Catholic  in  Ireland  had  beheld, 
with  equal  astonishment,  a  motion  favourable  to  the  former, 
carried  by  a  large  majority  in  the  commons,  and  only  lost  in  the 
lords  by  a  majority  of  one — a  defeat  in  name,  but  virtually  a 
triumph. 

The  probabilities  were  on  the  side  of  an  actual  and  entire 
success  in  the  next  session.  The  grand  object,  therefore,  with 
the  one  party,  was  to  advance  this  consummation  during  the 
recess  by  all  the  means  in  their  power  ;  and,  of  course,  with  the 
other  party,  to  strengthen  the  old  obstructions,  and  endeavour  to 
create  others  anew. 

The  party  of  the  bigots  had,  however,  a  fearful  advantage  in 
means,  and  were  not  deterred  from  using  them  by  any  scrupu- 
losity. We  have  already  alluded  to  the  eiforts  at  reviving  the 
"no  Popery"  cry.  But,  successful  as  these  were  with  the 
strongly-prejudiced  public  mind  of  England,  it  was  determined 
not  to  trust  to  the  mere  chance  of  their  influence  reacting  upon 
the  parliament.  The  latter  was  doomed — doomed,  because  of 
its  one  act  of  liberality — no  consideration  given  fb  its  many  acts 
of  an  opposite  nature,  not  even  to  the  surprising  celerity  with 
which  it  had  retracted  and  cancelled  the  vote  of  want  of  con- 
fidence before-mentioned. 

Accordingly,  early  in  the  month  of  October,  1812,  the  usual 
proclamation  appeared  of  the  dissolution  of  parliament,  and 
writs  were  immediately  issued  for  a  general  election. 

The  strugs^le  was  now  transferred  to  the  hustings ;  and  that 
it  was  one  of  no  very  gentle  or  moderate  character  may  well  be 
supposed.  The  government  and  its  agents  and  supporters 
stopped  at  nothing  to  secure  the  return  of  men  opposed  to  con- 
cession, and  their  efforts  were  very  generally  successful. 

Before  comins"  to -an  occasion  when  Mr.  O'Connell  expressed 
his  sentiments  upon  the  results  of  the  general  election,  there  is 
an  incident  of  his  le^al  avocations  to  be  noted. 

On  Monday,  the  19th  of  October,  he  and  Mr.  Finlay  appeared 
as  counsel  for  the  prosecutors  in  the  matter  of  some  charges 
made  bv  a  lartre  number  of  citizens  of  Dublin  against  the  citv 


212  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

police-magistrates,  and  investigated  into  by  Mr.  Sergeant  (the 
late  judge)  Moore  and  Mr.  Disney,  who  were  appointed  by  govern- 
ment for  that  purpose.  There  was  a  very  crowded  attendance 
to  hear  the  case,  being  one  of  considerable  interest  to  the 
inhabitants  of  Dublin  at  large ;  but,  to  the  astonishment  of  all 
present,  the  commissioners  announced  that  they  had  determined 
not  to  permit  the  interference  of  council. 

"  It  was  their  impression,"  said  Mr.  Sergeant  Moore,  who 
made  this  announcement,  "  that  it  was  much  better  to  dispense 
with  the  assistance  of  counsel,  and  to  investigate  the  charges  by 
an  examination  of  witnesses  unperverted  by  colouring  or  exag- 
geration of  any  description.  It  was  even  a  matter  of  question 
to  them  whether  there  was  not  an  irregularity  in  the  interference 
of  gentlemen  of  the  bar,  when  the  nature  and  constitution  of  the 
committee  were  taken  into  consideration." 

"  Counsellor  O'Connell  observed,  that  he  had  no  doubt  either  upon 
any  of  the  points  either  of  the  regularity  of  the  interference  of 
counsel,  their  entire  right  to  assist  in  the  present  investigation,  or 
the  actual  and  absolute  necessity  of  their  assistance. 

"  He  said  that,  as  a  member  of  the  Irish  bar,  he  was  fully  entitled 
and  empowered  to  appear  before  any  tribunal  whatsoever,  on  behalf  of 
his  majesty's  subjects,  in  any  instance  wherein  then'  lives,  liberties,  or 
properties  were  concerned ;  and  if  there  was  not,  as  there  ought  not 
to  be,  any  question  as  to  his  title  and  his  right  to  appear  upon  that 
or  any  other  legal  occasion,  there  could,  of  course,  be  as  little  as 
to  the  right  and  title,  as  well  as  certainly  to  the  expediency  and 
utility  of  his  leai*ned  friend's  appearance  and  assistance. 

"  The  fact  was,  there  were  the  most  heinous  charges  pending 
against  individuals  holding  high  and  very  important  situations  ;  the 
interests  of  the  community  were  concerned,  the  lives  and  properties 
of  the  inhabitants  of  Dublin  were  deeply  interested  ;  nothing,  there- 
fore, ought  to  be  left  undone  to  satisfy  the  public  mind,  to  make  the 
investigation  seai'ching  and  complete.  The  whole  matter  should  be 
sifted  to  the  bottom,  and  every  effort  made  to  arrive  at  the  truth  ; 
and  for  these  purposes  the  attendance  and  assistance  of  counsel  were 
imperatively  required. 

"  In  truth,  he  considered  it  little  better  than  a  libel  upon  the  bar, 
to  say  that  its  attendance  was  unnecessary.  Surely,  if  the  parties 
accused  were  innocent  of  the  heavy  charges  brought  against  them, 
the  exertions  of  a  barrister  could  do  them  no  possible  injury.     If 


DANIEL    O  CONNELL,    ESQ.,  M.P.  213 

tliey  were  really  innocent,  as  it  was  asserted,  they  could  not  have 
anything  to  dread  ;  but  if  they  were  guilty,  the  exertions  of  an 
honest  and  zealous  barrister  were  peculiarly  needed  to  point  out  the 
extent  of  their  delinquency,  to  leave  no  branch  of  their  crimes  unex- 
plored, to  allow  no  one  particular  of  their  misdemeanours  to  remain 
unrevealed  to  the  world. 

"  Besides,  it  was  to  be  recollected,  that  those  parties  themselves 
enjoyed  the  advantage  of  legal  aid.  There  were  no  less  than  six  of 
the  accused  who  were  themselves  capable  of  performing  the  duty  he 
had  undertaken  ;  and  the  rest  of  them  possessed  the  advantage  of  an 
acquaintance  with  the  rules  of  evidence  and  of  an  experience  and 
practised  dexterity,  highly  available  to  them  in  the  conduct  of  their 
defence.  It  would  be,  therefore,  absurd  to  pretend  that  they  could 
at  all  be  considered  in  the  light  of  ordinary  persons  unskilled  in  legal 
proceedings  and  unfamiliar  with  them. 

"  And  when  they  were  in  possession  of  such  advantages,  was  it  not 
a  palpable  injustice  to  attempt  to  deprive  his  clients  of  what  would 
no  more  than  place  them  upon  an  equality  ?  It  was  an  absolute  and 
gross  injustice  so  to  act.  He  would  most  solemnly  and  energetically 
protest  against  the  foul  play  of  not  allowing  the  benefits  of  legal  aid 
upon  the  one  side  as  upon  the  other ;  and  until  the  commissioners 
should  take  it  upon  themselves  to  order  him  to  walk  out  of  court,  he 
would  not  so  much  surrender  his  own  privileges  and  his  clients' 
rights  as  to  cease  his  protest  for  one  moment.  He  appeared  in  court 
as  the  retained  counsel  of  the  memorialists  ;  and  if  he  were  to  be 
disbarred,  he  could  not,  of  course,  help  it :  but  this  he  would  most 
certainly  do — conscious  of  the  extent  of  his  professional  privileges, 
the  necessity  and  entire  regularity  of  his  attendance ;  if  the  couit 
should  decide  against  him,  he  would  instantly  throw  up  his  brief  and 
advise  his  clients  not  to  attempt  going  one  step  further  in  this  most 
necessary,  most  useful,  most  solemn,  and  most  desirable  investigation. 

"  Without  legal  aid  this  enquiry  would  be  fruitless — the  truth  could 
not  be  known,  the  intentions  of  the  legislature  and  of  the  government 
(to  whom  praise  was  due  for  giving  that  opportunity)  should  be 
defeated,  the  country  will  be  disappointed,  the  public-spirited  indivi- 
duals who  had  brought  that  important  subject  before  the  nation  would 
have  been  making  only  a  nugatory  effort  at  the  attainment  of  justice — 
and  he  should  therefore  repeat,  that  if  the  court  were  against  him  he 
would  instantly  and  unhesitatingly  throw  up  his  brief,  and  advise 
those  upon  whose  behalf  he  appeared  not  to  proceed  any  further. 

"  Again,  he  would  say,  the  present  inquiry  was  most  important. 


214  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

The  criminality  it  was  instituted  to  examine  into,  deeply  and 
intimately  concerned  the  citizens  of  Dublin  in  their  lives,  liberties, 
and  properties.  His  instructions  authox'ized  him  to  declare,  that 
delinquency  of  the  most  enormous  magnitude  perpetrated,  in  the 
guise  and  under  the  pretence  of  the  administration  of  justice,  would 
be  exhibited  to  the  public  in  all  its  enormity.  Curious  instances  of 
imposition  would  be  exposed  to  view.  Penalties — sometimes  with 
ludicrous  whimsicalty — sometimes  with  inveterate  cruelty.  The  in- 
vestigation of  such  charges  as  these  was  a  matter  of  the  most  serious 
and  highest  importance  to  the  community  at  large — they  required 
the  most  serious  pains-taking  and  solemn  attention — they  demanded 
all  the  consideration  of  the  commissioners  themselves,  and  (surely  if 
the  assistance  of  a  barrister  had  ever  been  found  useful  in  forward- 
ing the  ends  of  justice,  in  protecting  and  vindicating  the  liberty  of 
the  subject)  they  demanded  also  all  the  exertions  of  a  professional 
man. 

"  He,  therefore,  claimed  to  be  heard  as  a  barrister — he  claimed 
to  be  heard  as  a  hoviseholder — as  a  citizen  of  Dublin.  How  could 
the  commissioner  possibly  resist  this  his  just  demand?  By  what 
authority,  and  according  to  what  precedent?  In  the  courts  of  law, 
high  and  low,  of  every  degree,  it  never  was  held  or  pretended  that  a 
barrister's  assistance  could  be  dispensed  with.  The  House  of  Com- 
mons admits  that  assistance.  How,  then,  by  what  authority,  and 
according  to  what  maxims  of  expediency  or  justice  could  that  Court, 
and  that  Court  alone,  reject  ?" 

Mr.  Finlay,  the  other  counsel  for  the  citizens,  followed  with 
an  able  argument ;  but  the  commissioners  were  not  to  be  moved. 
The  following  were  some  of  the  remaining  incidents  of  the 
affair : — 

"  Sergeant  Moore  wished  that  the  persons  who  had  signed  these 
charges  should  come  forward,  in  person,  and  substantiate  them." 

Mr.  O'Connell. — "  Mr.  Day,  with  whom  the  government  corres- 
ponded, and  whom  they  acknowledged  as  the  agent  of  the  memo- 
rialists in  this  case,  is  in  court.  Memorialists  appear  by  their  agent 
and  counsel,  Mr.  Day  and  myself;  each  in  our  respective,  but  cer- 
tainly differing  capacities,  stand  here  as  their  representatives. 

"  Sergeant  Moore  still  declining  to  recognize  counsel,  ordered  the 
names  of  the  memorialists  to  be  read,  and  Mr.  O'Connell  observed, 
that  it  appeared  to  him,  '  as  if  they  were  now  trying  whether  the 


DANIEL    O'CONNEI.L,    ESQ.,    M.P.  215 

government  were  justified  in  directing  the  inquiry  to  be  made,  not 
proceeding  to  the  inquiry  itself.' 

"  William  Bury,  one  of  the  memorialists,  having  denied  that  he 
had  any  ground  of  complaint  against  the  police  magistrates,  and  that 
he  had  been  induced  to  sign  the  memorial  by  a  misrepresentation. 

'*  Mr.  O'Counell  asked  whether  Mr.  Bury  read  the  paper  before 
signing  it.  Mr.  Bury  answering  that  he  neither  did  not,  or  that  his 
having  done  so,  made  no  impression  upon  him,  was  again  asked  did 
he  make  harness  for  coachmakers ;  which  he  answered  in  the 
affirmative. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  observed  that  he  perceived  he  should  soon  get  at 
the  '  LoKG  and  short  of  the  matter'  (alluding  to  Alderman  Long,  on^ 
of  the  police  magistrates,  and  a  coachmaker). 

"  Mr.  Sergeant  Moore  expessed  much  anxiety  to  prevent  an 
opinion  going  abroad,  that  anything  improper  had  been  intended  by 
the  Crown  Solicitor's  letter  (which  Mr.  Bury  had  received  and  had 
gone  to  consult  the  Lord  Mayor  upon)  ere  attending  the  court. 

"  The  letter  was  then  read  requiring  his  attendance. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  was  willing  to  acquit  the  Crown  Solicitor  of  any 
unfair  conduct ;  however,  it  was  remarkable  enough  that  the  only 
one  of  the  memorialists  who  had  appeared  was  '  a  dupe^ 

"  Some  other  names  being  called  over,  without  the  parties  answer- 
ing, it  was  proposed  to  adjourn  the  court,  but  Mr.  O'Connell  thought 
it  necessary,  previous  to  the  adjournment  taking  place,  that,  among 
the  charges  to  be  preferred  against  the  police  magistrates,  was  one 
for  using  every  possible  exertion  to  induce  persons  who  had  signed 
the  memorial  to  retract  their  signatures.  The  police  establishment 
possessed  a  very  extensive  and  powerful  influence.  Li  its  mercantile 
character  (for  it  embraced  some  persons  of  much  weight  in  that  line) 
its  influence  was  very  considerable,  and  its  corporate  capacity  con- 
tributed also  greatly  to  increase  that  influence.  He  was,  however, 
wishing  to  stand  forward  on  the  part  of  the  individuals  who  employed 
him,  confident  that  they  would  not  think  of  preferring  charges 
which  they  could  not  substantiate,  or  of  retracting  a  signature  which 
they  had  once  given.  It  was  true,  there  might  be  found  twenty,  or 
five  and  twenty  Irishmen  base  enough  to  be  intimidated,  or  induced, 
by  some  other  means,  to  retract  what  they  had  signed.  He  was 
sure,  however,  that  the  persons  who  employed  him  were  not  of  this 
description.  He  had  no  doubt  of  their  coming  forward,  but  he  could 
not  answer  for  the  appearance  of  those  who  had  signed  the  memorial 
nine  months  ago,  and  some  of  whom  might  be  of  the  description  he 


216  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

before  alluded  to.  It  was  possible,  indeed,  that  they  might  not  have 
sufficient  strength  of  mind  or  of  principle  to  hold  out  against  the 
influence  which  he  was  instructed  had  been  used  to  prevail  with 
them  to  retract  their  signatures. 

"  Mr.  Guinness  denied,  in  the  most  solemn  manner,  having  ever 
used  any  influence  of  the  kind  attributed  to  the  police  magistates. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  was  happy  to  have  it  in  his  power  to  inform  Mr. 
Guinness,  that  his  name  was  not  among  those  magistrates  against 
whom  this  charge  was  made. 

"  Major  Sirr  protested,  upon  his  honour,  that  he  never  tried  to 
prevent  any  person's  coming  forward,  and  added,  that  whoever 
asserted  it  was  quilty  of  a  gross  falsehood. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell. — '  Mr.  Sergeant  Moore,  there  are  some  expressions 
which  should  never  be  used  where  gentlemen  are  concerned.  As  far 
as  relates  to  myself ' 

"  Major  Sirr — '  I  beg  leave  to  say,  that  I  did  not,  in  the  very 
slightest  degree,  allude  to  you,  sir ;  I  think  you  have  behaved,  dur- 
ing the  whole  transaction,  in  the  most  gentlemanly  manner.'  .     .     . 

After  some  further  dialogue  of  a  desultory  character,  the 
investigation  was  adjourned  to  the  following  Wednesday,  the 
21st  of  October.  On  that  day  the  same  parties  attended,  with 
an  increased  and  overflowing  crowd  of  general  spectators,  the 
case  having  excited  the  greatest  interest  in  Dublin.  Early  in 
the  proceedings  of  this  day,  Mr.  Sergeant  Moore,  and  after 
him,  Mr.  Disney,  the  second  commissioner,  announced  their 
positive  and  final  determination  not  to  allow  of  the  interference 
of  counsel. 

The  latter  made  one  effort  more  to  assert  what  they  deemed 
their  privileges,  and  failing  in  that,  advised  their  clients  not  to 
attempt  to  proceed  any  farther. 

The  following  is  the  chief  part  of  the  report  of  the  occur- 
rences of  the  second  day  i — 

"  The  remaining  names  were  then  ordered  to  be  read  over,  and 
Mr.  O'Connell  again  rose  and  informed  the  Court,  that  he  appeared 
there  on  behalf  of  the  memorialigts  who  were  his  clients,  and  if  he 
was  permitted  to  proceed,  he  would  be  able  not  only  to  substantiate 
the  charges  in  the  memorial,  but  many  others  of  a  more  grievous 
nature,  and  by  credible  and  respectable  witnesses. 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  217 

"  Mr.  Sergeant  Moore  still  persisted  in  the  determination  of  not 
hearing  counseL 

"  Mr.  Disney  expressed  himself  to  the  same  effect. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  said,  he  would  bow  with  respect  to  any  decision 
Serjeant  Moore  and  his  brother  Commissioner  should  please  to  make. 
He  could  not,  however,  help  regretting,  that  an  inquiry  which  the 
government  had  directed,  under  the  seeming  desire  of  gratifying  the 
aggrieved  citizens  of  Dublin,  should  have  no  other  effect  than  to 
disappoint  those  expectations  which  had  been  naturally  entertained  ; 
and  that  after  having  been  led  to  form  rational  hopes  of  a  fair  and 
impartial  investigation,  they  had  been  allowed  only  the  mockery  of  a 
trial. 

"  Some  allusion  having  been  made  to  the  number  of  persons  in 
court,  he  observed,  that  if  it  had  been  intended  to  conduct  the  business 
in  any  other  than  a  public  mannei* — if  there  had  been  any  idea  of 
making  it  a  private  inquiry,  he  should  feel  himself  called  upon  to 
enter  his  strongest  protest  against  such  a  measure.  That  would  be, 
indeed,  a  most  extraordinary  method  of  meeting  the  wishes  of  the 
public.  Such  a  procedure  was  well  calculated  to  shield  delinquency, 
but  not  to  discover  guilt.  He  wished  that  the  evidence  of  his  being 
employed  as  counsel  by  five  of  the  aggrieved  individuals,  and  of  his 
appearing  on  their  behalf,  should  be  regularly  entered  on  the  minutes 
of  the  court,  to  prevent  any  controvei'sy  hereafter. 

*'  Mr.  O'Connell  and  Mr.  Finlay  concurred  in  advising  their 
clients  to  proceed  no  further  in  this  inquiry,  as  it  had  been  decided 
to  prevent  the  assistance  of  counsel. 

"  Mr.  Day,  the  agent  for  the  memorialists,  directed  his  witnesses 
to  leave  the  court.  He  subsequently,  in  direct  terms,  charged  the 
Under  Secretary  at  the  Castle,  Sir  Charles  Saxton,  with  having  lent 
himself  to  the  attempt,  to  persuade  or  frighten  persons  into  with- 
drawing their  signatures  from  the  memorial.  A  good  deal  of  angry 
discussion  ensued ;  but  with  no  result,  so  far  as  any  alteration  in  the 
resolves  of  the  Commissioners,  relative  to  not  allowing  memorialists 
the  advantage  of  counsel.  The  advice  of  the  latter  was  accordingly 
adopted  by  the  memorialists,  and  the  futile  attempt  at  obtaining 
justice  was  abandoned." 

On  Thursday,  the  5th  of  November,  1812,  there  was  an 
aggregate  meeting  of  the  Catholics  of  the  county  of  Dublin, 
held  at  Kilmainham,  convened,  according  to  the  terms  of  the 
requisition,  "to  take  into  consideration  the  propriety  of  peti- 


218  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

tioning  parliament  for  the  total  repeal  of  the  penal  laws 
affecting  our  (the  Catholic)  body,"  but,  in  fact,  to  afford  an 
opportunity  of  discussing  the  results  of  the  elections  just 
concluded,  and  the  conduct  of  particular  parties  in  various 
localities  during  those  elections ;  and,  generally,  the  state  and 
prospects  of  the  Catholic  cause.  William  Gerald  Baggott,  of 
Castle  Baggott,  was  called  to  the  chair. 

When  Mr.  Baggott  had  concluded  his  short  address,  on  taking 
the  chair,  Randal  M'Donnell,  Esq.,  after  some  remarks  in  praise 
of  the  conduct  of  the  poorer  classes  of  the  electors  during  the 
late  contests,  introduced  the  resolutions  that  had  been  prepared. 

The  first  was  merely  to  the  effect  that  the  Catholics  should 
petition.     The  second  was  as  follows  : 

"  That  we  deem  the  idea  of  annexing  any  conditions  or  restrictions  to  our 
emancipation,  under  the  name  of  securities,  to  imply  a  most  unmerited  insult 
to  our  allegiance  as  to  our  understandings ;  and  that  such  idea  originated  with 
our  worst  enemies,  for  the  mere  purpose  of  delaying  the  concession  of  Religious 
Freedom,  which  we  claim  as  a  right — the  concession  of  which  we  deem 
essential  to  the  safety  of  the  country." 

Then  followed  resolutions  of  thanks  to  their  Royal  High- 
nesses the  Dukes  of  Kent  and  Sussex,  for  their  favour  and 
support  to  the  Catholics ;  and  also  to  "  the  Bishop  of  Norwich, 
Lord  Donoughmore,  the  Right  Hon.  Henry  Grattan,  and  other 
illustrious  supporters  of  our  rights  in  Parliament;"  and  to  the 
Protestant  friends  of  the  cause  generally. 

6th  Resolution. — "That  from  recent  events,  we  deem  it  necessary  to  con- 
jure the  Cathohc  Freeholders  of  Ireland,  to  strengthen  their  interests  by 
immediate  registry,  and  to  abstain  from  involving  themselves  in  any  promises 
that  may  connect  them  with  the  supporters  of  an  incompetent  and  profligate 
administration." 

Thanks  were  also  voted  to  "  Colonel  Talbot"  (the  present 
Lord  Talbot) ;  Luke  White,  Esq. ;  Peter  Locke,  and  John 
Hume,  Esqrs.,  for  their  attendance  that  day. 

The  two  first-named  gentlemen  having  severally  returned 
thanks,  there  were  loud  calls  on  every  side  for  "O'Connell, 
O'Connell ;"  and,  as  the  newspaper  reports,  "  after  a  short  he- 
sitation, the  Man  of  the  People  came  forward  and  spoke  to  the 
following  effect : 

"  I  could  not  be  an  Irishman,  if  I  did  not  feel  grateful,  if  I  was 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  219 

not  overpowered  at  tlie  manner  in  which  you  have  received  me. 
Sorry,  sunk,  and  degraded,  as  my  country  is,  I  still  glory  in  the  title 
of  Irishman.  (Bursts  of  applause.)  Even  to  contend  for  Ireland's 
liberties  is  a  delightful  duty  to  me.  (Enthusiastic  plaudits.)  And  if 
anything  is  wanting  in  addition  to  the  evidence  of  such  humble 
efforts  as  I  have  already  been  engaged  in,  for  the  restoration  of  our 
freedom  and  independence,  to  evince  my  devotion  to  the  cause  of 
my  country,  I  do  swear,  by  the  kindness  you  have  shown  me  now — 
by  'any  I  have  ever  experienced  at  your  hands,  and  by  all  that  I 
hold  valuable,  or  worthy  of  desire,  that  my  life  is  at  her  service. 
(Applause.)  And  may  the  heavy  hand  of  adversity  fall  down  upon 
me,  and  upon  all  that  are  dearest  to  me — the  children  of  my  heart 

if  ever  I   forsake   the    pure   pursuit  of  the   liberty  of  Ireland. 

(Cheering  for  several  minutes.)  Gentlemen,  we  are  now  arrived  at 
a  period,  when  we  ai'e  not  only  struggling  for  the  interest  of  our  own 
religion,  but  for  the  liberty,  security,  and  peace  of  our  Protestant 
brethren,  both  here  and  in  England.    (Applause) 

"  We  are  arrived  at  an  important  crisis,  when  a  serious  profession 
Las  been  made,  on  our  behalf,  by  the  English  parliament.  This  is 
the  first  time  that  a  declaration  such  as  that  to  which  I  allude  was 
ever  made  in  the  senate.  It  is  the  first  time  that  the  voice  of 
religious  liberty  was  really  heard  in  the  British  parliament — the 
first  time  that  men  were  allowed  to  judge  for  themselves,  and  to  obey 
the  divine  precept,  of  treating  others  as  they  themselves  would  wish 
to  be  treated.  (Hear,  hear.) 

"  The  period  is  highly  important,  and  calls  for  all  the  watchful- 
ness, zeal,  and  assiduity  of  which  we  are  capable.  An  administra- 
tion (formed,  heaven  knows  how !)  have  given  us  a  specimen  of  their 
acting  a  neutral  part  towards  us.  They  have  promised  that  they 
shall  not  interpose  their  authority  to  interrupt  the  good  intentions  of 
any  man.  Some  of  them  have  even  pledged  themselves  to  support 
the  Catholic  question  ;  and,  probably,  half  of  them  have  given  some 
earnest  of  their  improved  liberality.  I  will,  however,  give  them  little 
credit  for  sincerity  ;  I  believe  they  would  not  even  pretend  to  lay 
much  claim  to  our  confidence — they  have  too  much  modesty  to  expect 
to  be  believed  by  us  (Laughter,  and  cries  of  hear,  hear) — we  have,  I 
believe,  without  paying  much  attention  to  the  professions  of  the 
Cabinet,  aiTived  at  a  most  important  crisis.  It  behoves  every  man  of 
us  to  do  his  duty,  and  to  take  care  that  we  shall  lose  none  of  the  im- 
portant acquisitions  we  have  made.  This  very  administration  of 
whom  I  am  speaking,  notwithstanding  all  their  fair  promises,  have 


220  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

been  busily  employed  in  throwing  new  impediments  in  our  way 
since  last  session.  But  those  impediments  shall  do  us  little  injury 
if  we  do  our  duty.  They  certainly  are  our  natural  enemies — they 
hate  liberty — they  have  an  inherent  abhorrence  to  freedom,  and 
their  hostility  to  us  is  particularly  embittered  by  our  contempt  for 
them  (Loud  applause)  ;  yes,  gentlemen,  such  are  the  men  whom 
you,  in  your  resolutions,  have  justly  termed,  'incompetent,'  and 
'  profligate' — such  are  the  men  who  now  command  the  destinies  of 
those  realms,  and,  probably,  the  fortunes  of  Europe.    (Hear,  hear.) 

"  I  am  afraid,  gentlemen,  that  I  shall  take  up  too  much  of  your 
time  if  I  advert  to  some  topics  that  are  crowding  upon  my  mind. 
(Cries  of  no,  no,  go  on,  go  on.)  The  first  I  should  be  inclined  to 
allude  to  is,  an  address,  lately  published  by  a  real  friend  to  religious 
liberty,  and  printed  by  Mr.  Cobbett,  a  distinguished  colleague  of  his, 
in  the  exposure  of  public  corruption — I  mean  Lord  Cochrane,  one  of 
the  members  for  the  city  of  Westminster,  than  whom  no  man 
deserves  better  of  every  real  admirer  of  political  integrity  and 
patriotism. 

"  This  distinguished  member  observes,  that  he  was  once  opposed  to 
tlie  Catholics,  because  he  disapproved  of  the  slavish  doctrines  which 
prevail  '  in  the  Romish  Church.'  It  is  some  consolation,  gentlemen, 
that  there  is  some  person  who  can  assure  ministers,  there  is  no 
danger  in  granting  us  emancipation — we  are  not  too  fond  of  liberty. 
(Laughter.)  But,  gentlemen,  see  the  consistency  and  rationality  of 
our  calumniators !  At  one  time  they  say  we  are  agitating  democrats, 
crying  aloud  for  an  unwarrantable  portion  of  freedom :  the  very 
next  moment  they  turn  round  and  tell  us,  that  we  have  a  marvellous 
propensity  for  slavery !  (Loud  cries  of  hear,  hear.)  The  truth,  how- 
ever, is,  that  their  accusations  are  false  in  both  instances  ;  we  do  not 
go  to  excess  on  either  side  ;  we  are  partial  to  a  legitimate  and  well- 
modelled  monarchy  in  an  hereditary  line,  and  we,  at  the  same  time, 
reverence  the  majesty  of  the  people.  "While  we  bear  a  true  allegiance 
to  the  British  constitution,  we  still  say,  that  life  is  not  worth  enjoy- 
ment, without  the  blessings  of  freedom.  (Reiterated  applause.)  Lord 
Cochrane  admits  that  he  is  converted  from  his  original  antipathy  to 
Catholics,  and  he  says  he  is  now  ready  to  grant  them  all  the  immu- 
nities he  himself  enjoys,  if,  in  the  first  place,  they  accept  tlie  privileges 
of  Englishmen,  and  if,  in  the  second,  they  renounce  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  Pope.  I  say,  we  are  most  anxious  to  obtain  the  privileges  of 
Englishmen.  Let  Lord  Cochrane  recollect  what  the  first  Irishman 
that  ever  was  born  said  at  Newry. 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  221 

["  Here  the  learned  gentleman  was  interrupted  for  several  minutes 
by  the  acclamations  of  the  assembly.] 

"  I  am  not  surprised — continued  Mr.  O'Connell,  when  silence  was 
again  restored — I  am  not  surprised  that  you  should  feel  the  most 
extatic  emotions  of  the  Irish  heart,  when  I  but  allude  to  the  name  of 
John  Philpot  Curran.  (Renewed  cheering.)  It  recalls  to  us  every- 
thing that  is  dear  or  interesting  in  our  history — it  pronounces  every- 
thing that  we  are  proud  to  live  with  in  this  age,  and  everything  that 
shall  be  estimable  in  the  minds  of  posterity.  (Loud  applause.)  I 
know  the  name  of  John  Philpot  Curran  has  conducted  you  back 
involuntarily  to  that  most  awful  era  in  our  annals,  when  we  were 
deprived  of  our  independence,  and  metamorphosed  into  the  colony 
of  a  people,  who  were  not,  and  who  are  not,  in  the  least,  worthy  of 
being  our  masters.  But,  my  friends,  if  we  are  true  to  ourselves — if 
Protestants  and  Catholics  be  alive  to  their  commonest  and  most 
intimate  interest,  we  may,  profiting  among  other  aids,  by  the  assist- 
ance of  this  very  idol  of  ours,  to  whom  you  have  just  paid  your 
affectionate  tribute — we  may,  I  say,  become  a  kingdom  once  more ! 
(Thunders  of  applause). 

"  I  had  adverted  to  what  my  most  venerated  friend,  John  Philpot 
Curran,  said  at  Newry.  I  would  take  leave  to  remind  Lord  Coch- 
rane of  it,  assuming  it  to  be  the  expression  of  Catholic  feeling.  The 
Irish  Cicero  there  observed,  that  Englishmen  love  the  privilege  of 
being  governed  by  Englishmen.  I  would  tell  my  Lord  Cochrane, 
that  Irishmen  fully  as  highly  value  the  privilege  of  being  governed 
by  Irishmen.  (Long  continued  applause.) 

"  The  second  proviso  of  Lord  Cochrane  is  one  merely  of  a  polemical 
description.  He  wishes  to  destroy  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Pope.  I 
would  ask  of  him,  in  the  name  of  Christian  charity,  has  he  not  our 
solemn  oaths  to  satisfy  him  ?  (Hear,  hear,  hear.)  "We  are  degraded, 
excluded,  and  insulted,  because  we  regai'd  the  obligation  of  an  oath 
^ — because,  for  any  favour  earthly  power  can  bestow,  we  would  not 
violate  our  consciences  ;  and  still,  though  this  fact  is  clear  and  patent 
before  the  world,  we  are  insulted,  by  being  told  that  our  oaths  are 
not  a  sufficient  security  for  our  allegiance !  It  is  most  amazing  how 
men  will  presume  to  play  with  our  feelings.  We  show  them  that  we 
would  be  willingly  bondsmen  to  all  eternity,  sooner  than  violate  our 
oaths  ;  yet  they  demand,  as  a  security,  a  breach  of  the  precepts 
of  our  religion — not  thinking  even  an  oath  from  such  people  suf- 
ficient. (Hear,  hear.)     In  the  course  of  my  professional  pursuits,  I 


222  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

have  been  one  hundred  times  compelled  to  swear  that  I  did  not 
think  it  lawful  to  commit  murder.  (A  laugh.)  You  laugh,  gentle- 
men, but  what  I  tell  you  is  not  a  greater  absurdity  than  Lord 
Cochrane's  proposed  pledge.  But  see  how  the  imputation  which 
such  men  would  throw  upon  us,  would  operate  as  api)lied  to  an 
individual  in  private  life.  They  demand  a  pledge  of  us,  saying,  by 
implication,  that  we  do  not  value  an  oath.  Why,  if  any  man  in  the 
community  had  the  audacity  to  tell  me  directly  that  I  did  not  value 
an  oath,  either  he  or  I  should  not  long  survive  such  a  flagrant 
insult.  But  we  are  told  we  have  predelictions — we  do  not  deny  the 
charge.  As  for  my  part,  I  do  not  value  the  man  who  has  not  his 
predelictions  and  resentments  ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  Lord  Cochrane 
may  be  as  much  afraid  of  our  predelictions  for  the  grand  [lama 
of  Tartary,  as  for  the  Pope  of  Rome.  (Hear,  hear.) 

"  Those  imputations  upon  our  value  for  an  oath  evince  only  the 
miserable  ignorance  of  our  opponents,  with  regard  to  our  principles 
and  our  uniform  conduct.  They  bring  to  my  recollection,  again,  the 
words  of  the  great  Curran  at  Newry,  and  serve  to  convince  me  still 
more  of  their  entire  justice,  when  he  said,  '  that  they  are  unfit  to  rule 
us,  making  laws,  like  boots  and  shoes  for  exportation,  to  fit  us  as 
they  may.'  (Long  continued  applause.) 

"  I  have  taken  up  much  of  your  time,  gentlemen,  but  I  confess  I 
am  anxious  that  the  people  of  England  should  know  us.  If  Lord 
Cochrane  was  here,  I  do  not  think  that  we  could  fail  to  convince 
him  of  the  mistakess  he  has  fallen  into.  We  are  no  deluders  or 
traitors — we  do  not  make  promises  to  violate  them.  There  is  a  long 
tribe  of  wretches  who  accuse  us  of  treachery ;  if  they,  indeed, 
revived  their  slanders,  they  should  not  obtain  a  reply.  This  junta 
constitutes  the  worst  and  vilest  herd  of  the  community.  Whenever 
the  invader  touches  our  shores  they  will  be  the  first  to  join  him  ; 
while  we,  the  insidious  and  agitating  demagogues,  are  ever  most 
ready  to  oppose  him.  And  why  should  they  not  sell  their  country  ? — 
surely,  they  sell  it  to  the  minister.  They  may  as  well  sell  it  to 
Bonaparte  as  to  Lord  Castlereagh,  if  they  be  proportionately  re- 
warded. (Hear,  hear,  hear.)  This  tribe,  I  say  once  more,  ac(!used  us 
of  an  insensibility  to  moral  obligation.  I  would  not  condescend  to 
answer  them  ;  but  Lord  Cochrane  deserves  a  reply ;  he  is  a  friend  to 
civil  liberty — a  man,  whose  bravery  in  the  battles  of  his  country 
is  not  more  distinguished  than  his  integrity  in  the  senate ;  it 
is  a  useful  occupation  of    time,  to  labour  to  disabuse  his  mind  of 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,  M.P.  223 

prejudices  adopted,  doubtless,  without  consideration  ;  his  charges 
merit  an  answer,  and  if  he  were  here,  they  would,  I  trust,  receive 
a  full  and  satisfactory  answer. 

"  But,  turning  from  the  events  and  scenes  that  are  taking  place  at 
the  other  side  of  the  water,  and  contemplating  what  is  going  on  in 
this  country,  let  us  examine  what  there  is  to  interest  us.  The  elections 
are  in  some  places  even  still  going  forward.  I  am  told  the  Catholics 
have  considerably  lost  by  the  appeal  to  the  people.  (Hear,  hear.)  In 
one  place  they  have  lost,  and  lost  to  an  incalculable  amount,  indeed. 
Christopher  Hely  Hutchinson  has  lost  his  election  in  Cork!  (Cries  of 
shame,  shame,  and  hear.)  I  the  more  regret  this  misfortune,  because 
it  was  not  the  efforts  of  a  profligate  minister  that  rejected  him — not 
the  anger  that  has  followed  his  family,  ever  since  one  of  them,  with 
a  patriotic  and.  Roman-like  resolution,  drew  the  veil  from  the  infamy 
that  has  kept  you  in  slavery — from  that  nauseous  luxury  of  enjoy- 
ment, in  which  the  wine-bearer's  voice  is  decisive,  when  he  pro- 
nounces that  ^you  shall  be  still  kept  in  bondage.  (Applause.)  He 
failed — Hely  Hutchinson  failed — not  because  the  attendants  at  the 
Castle  were  despatched  to  uphold,  his  opponents — not  because  our 
worthy  Viceroy  expended  any  of  his  private  property  in  opposition 
to  him — the  profits  of  the  coal  tax  in  London,  or  the  £30,000  he 
is  allowed  as  a  slave.  Christopher  Hely  Hutchinson  is  out  of  par- 
liament, not  because  he  is  not  a  friend  to  the  liberties  of  mankind,  an 
ornament  to  his  country,  a  credit  to  human  honour  and  integrity, 
but  he  has  failed  because  of  the  apathy  of  Catholics!  (Loud  cries  of 
shame,  and  hear,  hear.) 

"  The  negligence — the  wicked  and  pernicious  negligence  of  Catho- 
lics did  against  him  what  neither  the  frowns  nor  smiles  of  administra- 
tion— the  favour  nor  the  anger  of  the  Court,  could  do.  Catholics 
neglected  to  register  their  votes  in  time,  and  thus  they  inflicted,  upon 
our  cause,  one  of  the  greatest  and  heaviest  calamities  that  could  befal 
us.  (Hear,  hear.)  With  what  contempt  do  they  now  look  upon  them- 
selves !  Do  they  not  despise  themselves  and  their  criminal  negligence  ? 
But  let  not  the  lesson  be  lost — let  it  be  proclaimed  and  spread  as 
widely  about  as  intelligence  can  reach.  Let  every  man  who  hears 
me  bear  it  strongly  upon  his  mind,  and  communicate  to  his  friends, 
that  the  neglect  of  the  Catholics  of  Cork,  in  registering  their  votes, 
was  the  sole  cause  of  our  losing  the  services  of  an  admirable  Irish- 
man.    (Loud  plaudits.) 

"  With  the  single  exception  of  Cork  the  elections  have  been 
decidedly  in  favour  of  us.     In  Gal  way,  indeed,  there  is  not  much  to 


224  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

applaud.  At  the  head  of  the  poll  is  Mr.  James  Daly,  a  nephew  to 
Mr.  Justice  Daly,  who  sits  on  the  bench,  because  of  having  voted  for 
the  Union.  (Hear,  hear.)  The  honest,  manly,  and  incorruptible 
Denis  Bowes  Daly  ought  to  have  been  returned  without  expense, 
and  ought  to  have  been  in  the  place  of  the  other  gentleman.  This 
upright  Irishman  has  sat  for  thirty-six  years  in  parliament,  without 
ever  giving  a  vote  against  the  interests  of  his  country ;  and  ive  are 
told  that  there  shall  be  a  dubious  contention  between  this  well-tried 
patriot  and  a  Mr.  Eyre,  a  man  who  never  did  anything,  but  who 
tells  us  that  he  will  do  something.  Meantime,  the  judge's  nephew 
will  be  returned  in  spite  of  fate.  (Hear,  hear,  and  cries  of  shame.) 
This  instance  of  ingratitude  is  truly  lamentable,  and  most  discre- 
ditable to  those  who  are  its  authors  ;  and  whilst  other  counties  are 
exhibiting  the  most  cheei'ing  proofs  of  true  public  spirit,  this  falling 
off  in  Galway  should  be  proclaimed  to  the  reprehension  of  the 
world.     (Hear,  hear.) 

"  In  Tipperary,  General  Mathew  and  Mr.  Prittie  are  at  the  head 
of  the  poll.  (Loud  cheering.)  All  the  efforts  of  Bagwell — all  that 
private  friendship  and  public  corruption  could  effect — all  that  the 
influence  of  the  Court  could  avail — all  that  favour,  traced  to  the  foot 
of  the  Throne,  could  perform,  were  unavailing.  Catholics  and  Pro- 
testants stood  and  acted  firmly  together,  and  Mathew  and  Prittie 
were  triumphant.    (Loud  cheers.) 

"  Nearer  home,  however,  we  have  not  so  pleasing  a  prospect  of 
popular  success.  Mr.  Clements,  a  decided  enemy  of  yours,  is  in ; 
and  Mr.  White,  whom  you  have  so  justly  thanked  and  applauded  this 
day,  is  out ;  but  I  trust  there  is  still  public  spirit  enough  to  return 
him,  and  add  him  to  the  list  of  your  friends. 

"  In  Wexford  you  have  got  two  additional  advocates. 

"  In  Downpatrick,  even,  John  Wilson  Croker,  of  the  admiralty, 
has,  to  use  a  northern  phrase,  been  kicked  out.  (Laughter  and 
cheers.)  I  remember  about  six  years  ago,  when  this  gentleman  and 
T  were  going  circuit  together,  his  Protestantism  did  not  keep  my 
Popery  much  in  the  back  ground.  (Laughter  and  cheers.)  If,  however, 
he  were  not  a  Protestant,  I  verily  believe  he  would  have  been 
doomed  to  drudge  all  his  life  at  the  bar,  though  he  has  been,  since 
that  time,  in  parliament,  and  is  now  rewarded  with  a  situation  in  the 
admiralty. 

"  In  Drogheda  we  have  got  Meade  Ogle,  and  have  got  rid  of 
Foster.     (Hear,  hear.) 

"  But,' surely,  in  Trinity  College,  we  have  not  only  been  emanci- 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  225 

puted  iVom  another  Foster,  but  we  have  had  an  accession  to  our 
vStrength,  in  that  credit  to  Ireland,  that  ornament  to  the  bar,  and 
that  honour  to  human  intelligence,  William  Conyngham  Plunkett. 
(Loud  applause.) 

"  I  need  say  little  of  Dublin.  The  corporation  are  involved  in 
debt,  and  Jack  Giffiird,  the  police  magistrates,  and  Billy  M'Auley, 
could  not  muster  votes  enough  to  get  up  any  man  in  opposition  to 
Mr.  Shaw,  whose  great  crime  it  is  to  have  acted  honestly  and  con- 
scientiously. The  ^felonious  rabble'  of  the  corporation,  if  I  may  use 
the  delicate  expression  of  one  of  its  members,  had  not  courage  to 
produce  one  person  to  oppose  Henry  Grattan,  who  '  watched 
Ireland's  independence  in  its  cradle,  and  followed  it  to  its  tomb  1' 

"  I  have  not  called  your  recollection  to  the  county  of  Dublin, 
where  Mr.  Hamilton,  who  had  the  credit  of  relinquishing  his  preju- 
dices to  you,  was  returned  without  opposition,  because  he  discharged 
the  trust  you  reposed  in  him  faithfully  and  honourably  ;  and  where 
that  truly  excellent  Irishman,  Colonel  Talbot,  was  returned  also 
without  opposition.  (Here  there  were  the  most  enthusiastic  accla- 
mations which  lasted  for  several  minutes.)  Gentlemen,  I  am  sorry 
that  Colonel  Talbot  is  present,  because  I  am  thus  restrained  from 
saying  what  my  heart  dictates,  and  his  merit  demands.  He  speaks, 
acts,  and  thinks  like  a  true  and  genuine  Irishman.  Register  your 
votes,  and  let  him  be  ever  sent  to  watch  your  interests  as  he  has  been 
at  this  election — namely,  without  the  vexation  of  any  opposition. 
(Loud  applause.) 

"  Such  is  the  state  of  the  elections — such  is  the  state  of  your 
cause.  Is  it  not  demonstrative,  that  if  you  had  a  Protestant  parlia- 
ment in  Ireland,  they  would  emancipate  you  ? 

["  The  manner  in  which  this  sentence  was  received  by  Mr. 
O'Connell's  auditory  is  described  as  having  been  enthusiastic  almost 
beyond  any  former  experience.  The  applause  was  taken  up  again 
and  again,  for  many  minutes,  with  unabated,  and  almost  increasing 
warmth,  and  it  was  not  for  a  long  time  that  he  was  suffered  to 
proceed.] 

"  In  the  county  of  Clare,  I  forgot  to  say,  the  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer  is  thrown  out.  The  Catholics  of  this  county  have 
covered  themselves  with  eternal  honour.  All  the  money  of  the 
treasury  was  without  influence  to  seduce  them  from  their  duty. 
Relinquishing,  as  was  the  case  with  numbers  of  them,  the  closest  ties 
of  intimacy,  friendship,  and  kindred,  they  nobly  told  the  Chancellor 
that  they  had  every  good  wish  for  his  interest,  but  that  their  country 


226  MEMOIR    AND    SPEKCHES    OF 

had  the  first  claim  upon  them  and  upon  their  votes.  (The  loudest 
applause.) 

"The  Ponsonby  family  have  succeeded  in  the  north.  If  the 
north  was  disgraced  by  the  return  of  a  Yarmouth  or  a  Castlereagh, 
there  is  sufficient  consolation  in  the  circumstance  I  have  just  men- 
tioned, to  make  us  well  pleased  with  our  liberal  Protestant  brethren, 
in  that  portion  of  Ireland.  In  speaking  of  Lord  Castlereagh,  I  do 
not  know  how  to  select  words  to  adequately  express  my  feelings.  I 
should  become  an  old  man  in  foaming  out  the  torrent  of  hatred 
and  indignation  with  which  my  bosom  teems.  He  is  not  here  at  the 
present  moment ;  but  I  do  not  feel  myself  the  less  authorized  to 
speak  of  him  as  an  honest  and  injured  Irishman  should  speak;  because 
there  are  people  here,  I  am  well  persuaded,  to  convey  to  him  the  lan- 
guage I  use.  Mr.  Wellesley  Pole  boasted  of  his  having  people  behind 
the  curtain  at  every  Catholic  meeting.  His  successors,  I  suppose,  have 
imitated  his  wisdom ;  and  as  there  is,  therefore,  some  spy,  in  all 
probability,  lurking  to  apprise  Lord  Castlereagh  of  what  goes 
forward,  I  have  not  i-estrained  myself.  Let  the  man  who  buried  thou- 
sands of  our  brave  troops  in  the  marshes  of  Walcheren,  and  destroyed 
the  springs  of  his  country's  liberty,  know  the  feelings  which  are 
experienced  by  an  Irishman,  when  his  name  is  mentioned.  (Loud 
applause.) 

"  To  counterbalance  the  gloom  that  is  thrown  over  the  mind 
when  the  success  of  an  enemy  to  the  cause  of  Ireland  is  contem- 
plated, I  might  exhibit  the  prospects  that  are  presented  by  the 
residence  of  the  young  Duke  of  Leinster  amongst  us.  (Loud  accla- 
mations.) Inheriting  such  a  load  of  the  virtues  of  his  ancestry,  his 
promises  are  great.  Indeed  there  is  something  in  the  name  of 
Fitzgerald  to  cherish  and  console  Ireland  under  the  heaviest 
afflictions.  (Loud  applause.)  Let  us  hope  that  those  virtues  only 
want  an  opportunity  of  action  to  prove  advantageous  to  the  empire. 
Let  us  hope  that  he  is  at  this  moment  at  the  meeting  in  Kildare, 
commencing  a  career  of  glory  to  himself  and  usefulness  to  Ireland. 
(Cheering.) 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  next  adverted  to  the  disgraceful  efforts  that  have 
been  made  in  the  counties  of  Sligo,  Leitrim,  Roscommon,  and  Long- 
ford, by  a  disgraceful  no-Popery  faction,  to  agitate  and  disturb  the 
public  peace.  To  those,  however,  was  to  be  opposed  that  formidable 
and  imposing  document,  the  Protestant  petition,  signed  by  every- 
thing of  wealth,  respectability  or  talent  that  was  to  be  found 
throughout   the   country.     He   named   to  a  few  of  the   no-Popery 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.V.  227 

agitators,  whose  titles  and  peculiarities  excited  much  laughter,  a  Mr. 
Steward  Corry,  a  Mr.  Owen  Wynne,  an  encourager  of  pigs,  and 
brother  to  the  caterer-general  of  the  Castle,  and  a  Mr.  Counsellor 
Webber,  who  was  an  assistant  barrister,  or  in  the  words  of  the  great 
Flood,  who  had  once  availed  himself  of  the  '  refuge  Jbr  tried 
incapacity.'  In  one  county,  he  said,  an  obscure  clergyman  was 
the  author  of  a  string  of  anti-Catholic  resolutions.  But  the 
hypocritical  affectation  of  liberality  in  those  gentlemen.  (Hear, 
hear.)  Catholics  were  their  loving  brothers — everything  delightful, 
iind  sublime,  and  affectionate.  (A  laugh.)  They  love  us,  but 
they  desii-e  us  to  continue  slaves — they  desire  us  to  fight  for  them 
and  pay  the  taxes,  but  they  keep  the  reward  to  themselves.  Mr. 
O'Connell  descanted,  at  length,  upon  the  necessity  of  agreement  and 
unanimity  between  all  classes  at  this  awful  crisis.  Pie  said  it  would 
be  much  more  creditable  and  wise  in  ministers,  at  this  juncture,  to 
enter  into  a  treaty  of  amity  with  the  Catholics  of  Ireland,  than 
lavish  a  subsidy  of  eighty  thousand  pounds  upon  Bernadotte — than 
build  hopes  upon  the  insurrection  in  Paris — form  alliances  with  a 
chieftain  in  South  America,  or  conclude  arrangements  with  the 
Dey  of  Algiers.  Mr.  O'Connell  concluded  amid  acclamations  of 
applause. 

"  The  resolutions  were  then  put  by  the  chairman,  one  by  one,  and 
carried  unanimously. 

"  An  additional  resolution  was  then  brought  forward  by  Nicholas 
Malion,  Esq.,  to  the  following  eiiect : — 


"  'Resolved — That  the  thanks  and  support  of  this  meeting  are  eminently  due 
to  the  author  of  the  Statement  of  the  Penal  Laws  (Denis  Seully,  Esq.)  for  the 
zeal,  patriotism,  and  ability  with  wliich  he  has  published  to  the  country  the 
many  grievances  which  atiect  the  Catholics  of  Ireland.' 


"  On  the  resolution  being  put  from  the  chair,  Mr.  O'Connell  said 
that  he  could  not  avoid  noticing  one  among  the  many  tricks  which 
were  attempted  to  be  played  off  upon  the  people. 

"  There  was  what  purported  to  be  and  w'as  styled  a  '  Third  State- 
ment of  the  Penal  Laws,  which  aggrieve  the  Catholics  of  Ireland,' 
published  at  Jack  Giffard's  office,  and  compiled  by  two  notable 
individuals.  It  contained  only  those  laws  which  were  passed  when 
the  inhabitants  of  Ireland  were  wholly  Catholic,  and  where  the 
government  intended  an  insult,  they  had,  in  fact,  conferred  a  compli- 
ment. 


228  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  then  seconded  the  resolution  of  thanks,  which  was 
put  from  the  chair,  and  passed  unanimously. 

"  Mr.  Kirwan  said,  that  when  his  respected  friend,  Mr.  O'Connell, 
was  upon  the  topic  of  the  Cork  election,  he  thought  something  would 
have  been  proposed  to  ensure  a  seat  in  the  next  parliament  to  that 
most  distinguished  patriot,  the  Hon.  Christopher  Hely  Hutchinson, 
a  man  not  more  celebrated  for  splendid  talent  than  for  pure  and  dis- 
interested love  of  country. 

"  He  proceeded  to  suggest  that  a  borough  might  be  purchased  for 
Mr.  Hutchinson  ;  and  added,  that  he  was  authorized  to  say,  that  *  a 
sum  of  one  thousand  pounds  was  in  readiness  to  be  subscribed 
immediately,'  for  that  purpose.  He  concluded  by  moving  that  Mr. 
O'Connell  should  be  requested  to  frame  a  proposition,  pledging  the 
Catholics  to  procure  a  seat  for  Mr.  Hutchinson. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  declared  that  he  was  extremely  obliged  to  his 
friend,  Mr.  Kirwan,  for  his  suggestion ;  and  expressed,  in  the 
warmest  terms,  the  gratitude  which  he  conceived  the  Catholics  of 
Ireland,  and  Ireland  herself,  owed  to  Mr.  Hutchinson  and  to  his 
illustrious  family. 

"  But  he  was  aware,  from  his  professional  knowledge,  of  a  circum- 
stance which  would  make  it  imprudent  to  pass  a  public  resolution  of 
the  kind  Mr.  Kirwan  proposed.  There  was  a  special  and  express 
act  of  parliament,  declaring  that  no  money  should  be  directly  paid 
for  seats  in  the  legislature ;  though  it  was  well  known  that  indirect 
means  were  pretty  extensively  and  unhesitatingly  put  in  motion  for 
that  purpose. 

"  Money,  he  believed,  was  little  regarded  by  true  Irishmen,  when 
put  in  competition  witli  the  expression  of  their  feelings,  and  gratitude 
was  one  of  the  most  ardent  and  liveliest  feelings  of  the  Irisli  heart. 
This  proposition  had  been  before  in  contemplation,  but  it  was  wished 
that  the'Catholics  of  Coi'k,  who  formed  so  wealthy  and  influential  a 
body,  might  be  allowed  an  opportunity  to  retrieve  their  error,  in 
some  degree,  by  sending  Mr.  Hutchinson  into  parliament. 

"  They  had  already  offered  to  defray  the  whole  of  the  expenses 
and  charges  to  which  he  had  been  put,  but  he  had  utterly  refused 
to  allow  them  to  do  so.  He  (Mr.  O'Connell)  would,  however,  write 
to  Cork  that  night,  and  if  immediate  steps  were  not  taken  by  the 
Catholics  there,  to  ensure  their  late  worthy  i-epresentative  a  seat,  he 
pledged  himself  that   indirect  means  should  be  used,  without  delay, 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  229 

for  the  attainment  of  that  object.  One  of  the  first  names  that 
Ireland  could  boast — one  of  her  most  steadfast  patriots — one  of  her 
dearest  sons,  had  authorized  him  to  put  down  his  name  for  four 
hundred  pounds,  and  to  extend  it  to  five  hundred,  if  it  should  be 
found  necessary. 

"  Another  gentleman,  to  whose  private  worth  he  was  happy  to 
bear  testimony,  however  he  might  disapprove  of  his  late  public 
conduct,  had  empowered  him  to  put  down  his  name  for  one  hundred 
guineas,  and  to  increase  it  to  two  hundred  guineas,  if  it  should  be 
found  requisite.  This  last  gentleman  was  Mr.  John  Lalor,  of 
Cranagh. 

["  The  allusion  was  to  Mr.  Lalor's  being  reported  to  have  voted 
against  the  popular  party  at  the  late  election.] 

"  He  (Mr.  O'Connell)  had  no  doubt  that  Mr.  Hutchinson  would 
sit  in  the  next  parliament ;  and  though  he  did  not  take  up  the 
resolution  suggested  by  his  excellent  friend,  Mr.  Kii-wan,  he  was 
happy  to  seize  upon  the  opportunity  to  propose  a  resolution  approving 
of  Mr.  Hutchinson's  conduct,  and  couched,  so  as  to  express,  as 
nearly  it  as  was  possible  for  words  to  convey  it,  the  gratitude  which 
the  Irish  Catholics  felt  towards  that  gentleman. 

"  Ml'.  Hutchinson  had  always  shown  himself  the  intrepid  defender 
of  his  country.  At  the  time  of  the  Union  he  was  opposed  even  to 
his  own  family.  At  that  time  he  said  that  it  was  lawful  for  the 
people  of  Ireland  to  defend  their  constitution  in  the  field — that  the 
Catholics  and  Protestants  ought  to  bury  their  mutual  prejudices  in 
oblivion — turn  out  together— Jig ht  for  the  liberties  of  their  common 
country — preserve  them  or  die  ! 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  concluded  by  moving  the  following  resolution, 
which  was  carried  unanimously,  and  with  the  greatest  applause  : — 

"  '  Resolved — That  we  feel  it  beyond  the  power  of  language  to  express  the 
zeal  and  devotion  with  which  the  Catholics  of  Ireland  are  bound  to  the  Hon. 
Christopher  Hely  Hutchinson,  for  hi  uniform  conduct  in  the  Irish  and  English 
House  of  Commons.'  " 

How  sadly  the  reading  of  these  proceedings  brings  on  the 
mind  again  the  recent  loss  to  Ireland  of  that  true-hearted  and 
high-minded  patriot,  the  Hon.  George  Hely  Hutchinson, 
nephew  of  him  in  whose  favour  the  foregoing  resolution  was 
passed  ! 

It  may  be  permitted  to  one  who  had  the  many  opportunities 
of  knowing  his  worth,  which  the  details  of  committee  business  in 


230  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

the  Repeal  Association  afforded,  to  express  the  conviction  that 
a  man  more  sincerely,  disinterestedly,  and  whole-heartedly 
devoted  to  the  best  interests  of  Ireland — to  the  restoration  of 
her  parliament — never  existed  than  he,  whose  loss  we  have  now 
to  deplore. 

The  expressions  quoted  in  the  foregoing  speech  were  used 
by  Mr.  Curran,  in  an  address  of  his  at  Newry,  where  he  had 
just  lost  his  election.  The  worst  feature  in  this  circumstance 
was,  that  his  Orange  opponent,  General  Needhara,  received  the 
active  support  of  several  leading  Catholics  of  that  toivn,  members, 
too,  of  the  Catholic  Board. 

Their  delinquency  in  this  respect,  and  similar  misconduct  of 
prominent  Catholics  elsewhere,  excited  a  very  just  and  general 
indignation  throughout  the  country. 

At  every  election  since,  there  have,  unfortunately,  been  some 
instances  of  this  recreancy.  Catholics  have  been  found  to  vote 
for  their  bitterest  enemies,  in  opposition  to  the  advocates  of 
their  rights,  and  of  the  liberties  of  their  country.  This,  un- 
doubtedly, was  criminal  in  the  Catholic  elector  of  low  degree, 
because  the  violation  of  a  conscientious  duty  cannot  be  otherwise 
than  a  crime.  But  for  multitudes  of  the  humbler  offenders  in 
this  regard,  at  the  various  elections  from  the  time  Catholics 
were  re-admitted  to  the  franchise,  down  to  our  own  days,  there 
have  been,  not  the  excuses,  but  the  extenuations  of  impending 
ruin  and  starvation  ;  whereas,  the  wealthy  Catholics  who  have 
so  offended,  have  no  excuse  whatever. 

Even  at  the  election  of  1841,  when  the  war-whoop  of  the 
worst  bigotry  was  revived,  when  the  no-popery  yell  drowned  the 
voice  of  reason  and  remonstrance  among  so  many  English  con- 
stituencies, there  were  Catholics,  men  of  wealth,  found  to  go 
against  their  country,  and  give  their  support  to  the  pledged 
supporters  of  intolerance  and  oppression.  Partly  these  lamenta- 
ble facts  are  attributable  to  the  common  frailty  of  human  nature  ; 
more,  however,  to  the  dregs  of  old  servility  remaining  in  the 
blood  of  men  born  in  servitude. 

Mr.  O' Council  has  frequently  said — and  his  remark  is  con- 
firmed by  very  many  others — that  during  several  years  of  the 
present  century,  nothing  was  easier  than  to  know  a  Catholic  in 
the  streets,  by  his  subdued  demeanour,  and  almost  crouching  walk. 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.l'.  231 

That  outward  mark  of  degradation  has  disappeared ;  but  two 
many,  at  least,  of  the  wealthier  classes  among  the  Catholics, 
manifest  that  the  feeling  from  which  it  proceeded  is  yet  existing 
within,  prompting  them  either  to  the  open  flagrancy  of  giving 
their  votes,  at  elections,  to  their  old  oppressors,  or  observing 
towards  them,  in  the  ordinary  affairs  of  life,  a  miserable  sub- 
servience and  complaisance. 

Altogether,  even  where  these  delinquencies  cannot,  with 
justice,  be  attributed,  there  is,  among  the  Catholics  of  the  upper 
classes  in  Ireland,  some  want  of  a  proper  appreciation  of  them- 
selves, both  in  sentiment  and  action.  There  is  too  much  of  a 
disposition  to  take  and  act  upon  what  are  falsely  called  moderate^ 
but  are  really  mean  and  debasing  views,  in  all  matters  where 
Catholic  interests  come  into  question.  There  is  too  much  of  a 
disposition  to  false  candour,  and  to  paltry  and  derogatory  com- 
promise, in  the  idle  hope  of  conciliating  and  securing  something 
of  a  corresponding  return,  which  last  is  never  made.  The 
party  that  have  been  in  the  ascendancy  in  this  country,  preserve, 
to  the  full,  as  much  of  the  old  habits  of  that  ascendancy  as  the 
meanest-spirited  Catholic  does  of  the  old  habits  of  his  degrada- 
tion— and  they  take  all  concessions  and  conciliatory  self-depre- 
ciations on  our  side  as  matters  of  course,  quite  proper  for  us  to 
make,  and  by  no  means  imposing  on  them  the  necessity  of  doing 
much  by  way  of  return. 

Such  is  the  habit  of  mind  with  the  better  portion  of  that 
party ;  with  the  vulgar  amongst  them,  these  overweening  con- 
cessions are  matters  of  infinite  jest. 

This  state  of  things  should  not  be.  It  is  not  fair  towards 
ourselves,  of  course ;  but,  also,  it  is  not  fair  towards  the  party 
thus  encouraged  in  its  old  prejudices. 

If  this  country  is  to  enjoy  that  blessed  unity  among  men  of  all 
religious  professions,  for  which,  in  political  matters,  every  one 
who  loves  her  is  bound  so  earnestly  to  struggle,  a  really  firm 
and  lasting  cordiality  can  only  be  secured  by  that  which  is  found 
the  best  and  most  lasting  foundation  of  friendship  between  man 
and  man  in  private  life,  namely,  the  creation  and  maintenance  of 
a  mutual  respect.  So  long  as  one  set  of  men  are  taught,  either 
by  the  current  of  a  partial  legislation  or  by  the  injudicious  con- 


232  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

cessions  and  compromises  of  another  portion  of  the  community, 
to  consider  themselves  the  superiors  of  that  other  portion,  so 
long  there  can  be  no  real  amity  in  that  community. 

The  existence  of  that  amity  is  rendered  still  more  impossible, 
by  the  fact,  common  to  human  nature,  that  those  who  cringe 
and  concede  unworthily  to  gain  an  end  which  they  think  not 
otherwise  attainable,  are  exactly  the  persons  most  likely  to  offend 
in  a  contrary  way,  when  they  no  longer  see  anything  to  be 
gained  by  persevering  in  servility. 

Passing  these  reflections,  of  which  even  the  most  ordinary 
observer  of  Irish  affairs  cannot  fail  to  perceive  the  very  constant 
relevancy,  we  resume  our  immediate  subject. 

On  Saturday,  the  7th  of  November,  1812,  the  Catholic 
Board  re-assembled  at  their  rooms  in  Capel-street,  when  a  good 
deal  of  angry  feeling  was  manifested  towards  those  who,  in  the 
words  of  one  of  the.  parties  present,  had,  "under  any  pretence 
whatsoever,  supported  a  no-popery  retainer,  or  partisan,  at  the 
elections." 

Notice  was  given  by  Mr.  Lawless  (so  long  afterwards  better 
known  as  "  Jack  Lawless"),  of  a  resolution  condemnatory  of  the 
individuals  alluded  to,  and  declaring  that  they  "had  utterly 
forfeited  the  confidence  of  the  Catholic  Board." 

Mr.  O'Connell  gave  notice  that  he  would  bring  forward  a 
motion,  on  the  ensuing  Saturday,  that  another  grand  dinner 
should  be  given,  some  day  in  December,  to  the  friends  of  reli-" 
gious  freedom. 

Upon  the  day  mentioned,  the  board  accordingly  met ;  and  the 
question  as  to  the  dinner  came,  in  point  of  form,  first  under  con- 
sideration. To  this  Mr.  Byrne  objected,  as  a  matter  of  insig- 
nificant importance  compared  with  that  involved  in  Mr.  Lawless's 
notice. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  differed  widely  from  Mr.  Byrne  :  the  dinner,  if 
its  own  intrinsic  worth  were  considered,  was,  certainly,  of  little  value, 
and  to  none  of  less  value  or  consideration  than  to  himself ;  but  it 
would,  in  his  opinion,  have  the  good  effect  of  bringing  Irishmen 
together  in  awful  and  dangerous  times — keeping  alive  in  their  minds 
the  great  constitutional  objects  for  which  they  were  labouring,  and 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  233 

uniting  them  more  firmly  and  lastingly  in  the  bonds  of  mutual 
attachment,  and  in  the  legitimate  pursuits  in  which  they  were 
engaged. 

"  He  had  but  few  words  to  say  upon  this  subject,  because  he 
really  thought  it  did  not  admit  of  controversy,  or  stand  in  any  need 
of  illustration.  He  had  only  to  propose,  that  the  entertainment  he 
contemplated  should  be  given  to  a  limited  number  of  their  Pro- 
testant friends.  There  was  quite  too  much  inconvenience  on  the  last 
occurrence  of  this  kind,  from  the  vastness  of  the  crowd  that  the 
liberality  of  the  day  had  enabled  them  to  assemble  togethei-,  and  few 
had  been  able  to  enjoy  the  meeting  as  they  could  wish.  He  thought, 
therefoi-e,  that  it  was  very  expedient  to  limit  the  number  of  invita- 
tions to  two  hundred ;  he  was  strongly  impressed  with  the  expe- 
diency of  this  arrangement ;  no  room  would  accommodate  more 
satisfactorily,  or  enable  them  to  include  half  of  the  upper  classes  of 
their  patriotic  friends,  though  a  small  one,  it  seems,  is  ample  enough 
to  contain  all  the  freemen  of  Dublin,  who  qan  be  bribed  to  oppose 
them,  or  to  burlesque  the  present  notable  administration,  by  applying 
to  them  the  epithet  '  dignified.' 

"  He  would  again  say  that,  in  his  mind,  there  could  be  no  question 
as  to  the  utility  of  once  more  meeting  the  friends  to  Catholic  liberty 
and  to  Ireland.  When  another  pitiful  crusade  was  set  on  foot  by 
their  contemptible  enemies,  it  was  necessary,  by  arming  themselves 
with  new  zeal,  and  union,  and  unanimity  of  their  friends,  to  guard 
against  it.  It  could  not  escape  recollection,  that  a  fragment  of 
^  grand  jury  have,  within  a  few  day?,  been  goaded  into  the  politic 
act  of  representing  the  Catholic  board  as  a  nuisance.  This  base  in- 
sinuation demands  something  from  the  Catholics  of  Ireland.  He 
thought,  indeed,  every  individual  should  think  it  deserving  of  his 
personal  notice  ;  and,  as  for  himself,  at  least,  he  would  take  an 
opiiortunity  of  evincing  his  sentiments  upon  the  baseness  of  those 
who  would  meanly  insinuate  it,  without  having  the  courage  to 
assert  it. 

["  Here  there  was  a  general  expression  of  disgust  at  the  conduct  of 
the  gentry  alluded  to.] 

"  Their  conduct  (said  Mr.  O'Connell)  cannot  be  viewed  by  any 
liberal  man  without  feelings  of  indignation  and  contempt,  sanctioned, 
as  they  were,  by  a  man  whose  hand  is  not  yet  cold  from  embracing  his 
Catholic  friends  at  a  public  hustings,  and  whose  voice  has  yet 
scarcely  ceased  to  imprint  upon  their  ears  professions  of  regard  and 
everlastinar  attachment." 


234  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

Mr.  O'Connell,  after  some  pointed  observations  upon  the  new 
efforts  that  are  making  to  destroy  the  hope  of  Ireland,  concluded 
by  moving : 

"That  a  grand  dinner  be  given,  on  some  convenient  day  in  December,  to 
the  friends  of  religious  freedom ;  and  that  the  number  invited  be  limited  to  two 
hundred." 

The  limitation,  however,  appearing  decidedly  against  the 
sense  of  the  meeting,  Mr.  O'Connell  withdrew  that  part  of  the 
resolution,  and  the  remainder  was  passed  without  further  oppo- 
sition or  remark. 

Mr.  Lawless  then  rose  to  make  the  motion  of  which  he  had 
given  notice ;  but  was  for  a  few  minutes  interrupted  by  the 
chairman.  Lord  Fingal,  who  entered  a  protest,  by  anticipation, 
against  being  personally  bound  by  the  decision  of  the  board, 
should  they  adopt  Mr.  Lawless's  motion. 

The  latter  gentleman  resumed,  with  some  observations  upon 
this  declaration  of  the  chairman,  the  spirit  and  tenor  of  which 
he  deprecated,  and  then  proceeded  with  his  motion,  animadvert- 
ing particularly  on  the  conduct  of  Mr.  Caulfield,  of  Newry,  who, 
though  a  Catholic  and  (still  more)  a  delegate,  had  not  only 
not  voted  for  Curran,  but  had  actually  polled  for  his  adversary. 

The  motion  was  seconded  by  Dr.  Sheridan ;  after  which  two 
or  three  gentlemen  spoke  against  it ;  and,  stating  various 
excuses  for  the  conduct  of  the  parties  whom  it  purported  to 
censure — 

Mr.  Byrne  made  the  following  defence  for  Mr.  Caulfield,  who 
was,  as  we  have  before  noticed,  more  particularly  censured : — 

"  With  respect  to  Mr.  Caulfield,  he  had  been  under  obliga- 
tions of  a  most  binding  nature  to  General  Needham.  In  the 
dreadful  year  1798,  Mr.  Caulfield  had  been  taken  up  on  suspi- 
cion, and  it  turned  out  that  the  suspicion  was  ill-founded;  as, 
indeed,  proved  to  be  the  case  in  so  many  other  instances.  He 
was,  however,  for  a  long  time  detained  in  a  dungeon ;  and  the 
friends  of  the  candidate  for  whom  he  has  recently  voted,  em- 
ployed all  their  interest  to  obtain  his  release. 

"  When  they  succeeded  at  length  in  obtaining  it,  it  was  sent 
to  Mr.  Corry,  in  the  country,  and  that  gentleman  kept  it  eight 
or  ten  days  in  his  pocket,  suffering  Mr.  Caulfield  to  languish  in 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  235 

confinement.  At  that  time,  and  long  subsequent  to  it,  the 
received  opinion  was,  that  if  any  candidate  were  to  start  against 
General  Needham,  Mr.  Corry  would  be  the  man.  Under  this 
misconception,  Mr.  Caulfield  gave  his  promise  to  support  the 
candidate  to  whose  exertions  he  should  be  indebted  for  his 
liberty."  ..... 

After  some  other  gentlemen  had  spoken,  Mr.  O'Connell  rose 
and  said : 

"  He  had  very  little  to  offer  on  the  present  occasion.  He  had  no 
doubt,  and  he  believed  the  board  had  no  doubt,  of  the  propriety  of 
inflicting  their  great  and  heavy  punishment  of  their  censure  on  men 
who  had  yielded  to  the  basest  motives  of  betraying  their  country.  It 
was  not  only  the  duty  of  every  man  who  gave  his  vote,  to  pledge  the 
candidate,  not  only  to  the  support  of  Catholic  Emancipation,  but  also 
to  the  exertion  of  every  means  in  his  power  to  oppose  an  incompetent 
administration,  and  to  support  the  rights  of  the  country.  But  he 
was  sure  that  a  meeting  of  Ii'ishmen — of  Catholics,  and  of  gentlemen, 
would  not  confound  the  base  and  despicable  betrayer  of  his  native  land, 
the  shameless  deserter  of  the  tried  friends  of  the  cause,  and  the  man 
who  had  acted,  from  an  impulse  the  most  honourable  to  any  man,  that 
of  I'edeeming  plighted  faith. 

"  You  seem  to  find  it  difficult  to  draw  the  discriminating  line 
yourself;  and  how  much  more  so  will  it  be  for  the  public.  If  an 
indiscriminate  stigma  of  this  nature  were  to  be  sent  abroad,  it  would 
be  easily  converted  into  the  instrument  of  private  malignity.  This 
air-drawn  dagger  which  you  sent  forth  to  the  world  would  be 
soon  presented  to  the  breasts  of,  perhaps,  meritorious  individuals,  to 
gratify  the  purposes  of  malice  and  revenge.  It  would  be  made  the 
weapon  for  avenging  injuries  committed,  or  supposed  to  be  committed, 
upon  individuals  in  private  life,  and  thus,  instead  of  carrying  the 
weight  and  dignity  of  a  censure  pronounced  by  a  great  body  after 
difficult  evidence  of  its  justice,  it  would  dwindle  into  the  petty,  but 
mischievous  character  of  a  tool,  which  every  ill-minded  man  miglit 
seize  upon  to  satisfy  his  private  resentments. 

"  It  was  true  there  had  been  room  for  censure.  But  the  board 
should,  at  least,  give  those  persons  an  opportunity  of  satisfying  them- 
selves before  it  inflicted  punishment  upon  them ;  it  should  hear 
before  it  decided.  The  censure  involved  the  most  serious  considera- 
tion. It  was  one  which  would  not  only  affect  the  individual,  but 
would  be  handed  down  to  the  latest  posterity.     It  should,  therefore, 


23G  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

be  resolved  npon  with  the  greatest  and  most  mature  deliberation  ; 
not  when  the  assembly  was  heated  by  the  remembrance  of  recent 
election  contests,  heated  by  a  warm  and  protracted  discussion,  and 
doubly  excited  by  description  of  the  transcendant  merits  of  John 
Philpot  Curran — merits  which  it  is  impossible  to  do  justice  to.  He 
would  ask  whether  such  was  a  moment  to  pass  a  grave  and  solemn 
censure,  and  to  pass  it  in  such  a  form  that  it  may  be  applied  to  the 
very  last  man  in  the  community  to  whom  the  board  would  wish  to 
extend  it — a  man  who  has  ever  been  the  most  steadfast  supporter  of 
the  cause,  and  who  would  freely  lay  down  his  life  for  it.  It  may  be 
said  he  deserves  it ;  if  so,  inflict  it ;  but  do  it  manfully,  openly, 
honourably.  Let  it  not  be  said  that  you  decided  without  trying — 
that  a  tribunal  of  Irishmen  would  even  risk  the  charge  of  visiting  an 
Irishman  with  injustice.  It  would  be  cowardly  to  rob  a  man  of  his 
character  in  the  dark.  Those  men  may  have  cases  to  make  ;  they 
should  be  permitted  to  make  them. 

'*  With  respect  to  the  political  principle,  he  conceived  the  board 
possessed  the  power.  It  would  be  impossible,  for  many  reasons,  for 
an  aggregate  meeting  to  inflict  the  censure;  and  as  to  sending 
members  back  to  the  counties,  that  would  be  recognizing  the  principle 
of  repi'esentation,  which  they  denied  in  the  most  positive  manner. 
The  members  of  the  board  were  not  representatives,  but  they  con- 
tained within  them  the  mere  and  uubought  feeling  of  Irishmen,  and 
to  that  feeling  he  would  appeal  for  justice  to  the  character  of  a 
gentleman.  You  are  now  acting  upon  ex  post  facto  law.  It  is 
possible  that  reasons  may  have  existed  for  this  conduct  and  sure  you 
are  not  to  put  those  persons  to  the  bar  of  the  Irish  people,  without 
hearing  them.  He  would  propose  an  adjournment  for  a  fortnight. 
If  gentlemen  were  right  in  adopting  the  censure  this  evening,  they 
would  be  equally  so  this  day  fortnight,  and  it  would  come  with 
double  weight  when  resolved  upon  cooly,  without  being  inflicted  by 
a  panegyric  on  the  merits  of  Curran,  of  Hutchinson,  of  Mathew,  or 
of  another,  whom  Mr.  Lawless  forgot,  Prittie.  The  board,  by  pas- 
sing the  present  resolution,  will  assist  to  shield  the  real  delinquent, 
by  laying  part  of  the  blame  upon  worthy  men.  He  concluded  by 
moving  an  adjournment,  which  was  seconded  by  Nicholas  Mahon  ; 
and,  after  a  short  additional  discussion,  carried,  on  a  division,  by  a 
large  majority." 

On  Saturday,  the  28th  instant,  the  discussion  was  again 
revived,    in    a    densly    crowded    meeting-    of  the    board.      Mr, 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    iM.l'.  237 

O'Connell  called  the  attention  of  the  board  to  the  unwarrantable 
exercise  of  authority  by  certain  individuals,  who  had  taken  upon 
themselves  to  issue  summonses  to  attend  the  adjourned  debate 
on  Mr.  Lawless's  motion.  He  also  proposed  a  further  adjourn- 
ment until  the  following  Monday,  to  some  larger  place  of  meeting, 
where  there  would  be  room  for  the  immense  crowds  which  had 
that  day  assembled,  blocking  up  the  passages,  and  crowding  even 
the  street  below.  It  was,  however,  determined  to  remain  where 
they  were ;  and  the  debate  proceeded  on  Mr.  Lawless's  motion, 
put  in  the  following  shape  : — 

"  That  such  persons  as  had  deserted  the  tried  friends  of  the  Catholics  at  the 
last  general  election,  were  no  longer  deserving  of  their  confidence." 

After  several  very  animated  speeches />?-o  and  con,  M.  O' Gor- 
man (Nicholas  Purcell)  moved,  by  way  of  amendment,  to  add  a 
sentence,  approving  the  explanations  offered  by  Mr.  Lalor,  of 
Cranagh,  and  some  of  the  others  originally  inculpated. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  supported  the  amendment,  but  not  as  an  addition 
to  Mr.  Lawless's  motion.  The  original  resolution  he  considered  to 
be  one  of  the  most  unj  ust,  indiscreet,  and  inconsistent  that  could  pos- 
sibly have  been  conceived.  It  would  atfect  any  man  and  every  man. 
It  would  sacrifice  men  who  had  ever  evinced  the  utmost  anxiety  and 
zeal  for  the  promotion  of  the  Catholic  cause.  It  would  go  to  divide 
the  body,  and  interrupt  that  harmony  which  was  acknowledged  upon 
all  hands  to  be  of  the  most  vital  importance.  It  would  carry  the 
broad  inconsistency  upon  the  face  of  it,  of  censuring  persons  who  at 
the  same  time  were  held  to  have  satisfied  public  opinion. 

"  One  gentleman  (Mr.  0' Gorman)  had  told  them  he  supported  it 
on  the  grounds  of  its  having  elicited  the  satisfactory  explanation 
which  they  had  that  day  heard.  But,  surely,  it  was  unfair,  after 
acknowledging  these  vindications  to  be  so  entirely  full  and  complete, 
to  send  out  to  the  world  a  vague  and  general  censure  that  might  be 
turned  against  the  best  men  in  the  community. 

"  Another  gentleman  (Mr.  Costigin)  had  said,  '  let  those  the  cap 
fit  wear  it ;'  but  it  was  not  always  the  person  whom  the  cap  best 
fitted  that  it  was  placed  upon  by  the  public.  It  seldom  happened 
that  the  individual  whom  the  cloak  of  infamy  best  snited  would  of 
himself  put  it  on.  Such  a  person  was  genei-ally  far  more  disposed  to 
throw  it  over  the  shoulders  of  the  innocent,  and  array  himself  in  the 


238  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

garb  of  hypocrisy,  and  so  elude  tlie  disgrace  Avhicli  he  was  so  conscious 
of  meriting.  It  was,  to  borrow  an  illustration  from  scenes  of  horror 
that  had  been  alluded  to,  a  pitch-cap  of  torture  that  they  were  about 
to  force  down  upon  the  heads  of  unoifending  men,  and  not  a  well- 
earned  infliction  upon  real  and  shameful  delinquency. 

"It  should  be. borne  in  mind  that  that  board  was  the  organ,  as  it 
were,  of  the  Catholic  people.  Being  so,  its  denunciations  came  to  be 
considered,  ajid  were,  in  effect,  the  denunciations  of  that  people.  The 
Catholic  Board  should  not  forget  those  men  whose  exertions,  whose 
influence,  and  whose  active  patriotism  had  worked  up  the  cause  to  its 
present  high  position  and  momentous  importance.  It  was  no  small 
triumph  to  observe  gentlemen  of  the  fii'St  rank  and  consideration  in  the 
country  coming  forward  to  vindicate  themselves  to  that  board.  He 
well  recollected  a  time,  when  men,  possessed  of  their  fortune,  station, 
and  high  respectability,  cared  nothing  for  any  resolutions  that  might  be 
passed  by  meetings  in  Dublin.  The  Catholic  Board,  he  would  again  beg 
of  gentlemen  to  recollect,  had  now  arrived  at  such  a  pitch  of  influence 
and  importance,  that  their  frown  was  sufficient  to  cast  dismay  around 
any  man  they  attacked ;  but  it  behoved  them  to  prove  that  the  mode- 
ration and  justice  with  which  they  exercised  that  power  was  com- 
mensurate with  its  magnitude.  Whatever  might  be  the  decision  of 
that  day,  he  would  take  upon  himself  to  assert,  that  no  Catholic  in 
the  land  would  venture  to  vote  again  in  a  manner  that  could  sub- 
ject him  to  their  displeasure.  It  was  evident  how  unjustly  the 
resolution  might  operate,  from  the  statement  which  a  highly-respect- 
able gentleman  (Mr.  Burke)  thought  it  necessary  to  make  a  short 
time  before  ;  and  he  begged  leave  to  assure  that  gentleman,  that  if 
he  had  not  been  present  to  advocate  his  cause  in  person,  no  efforts 
of  his  (Mr.  O'Connell)  should  have  been  wanted  to  insure  the 
justice  Avhich  was  his  desert. 

"  He  thought  individual  votes  of  censure,  on  every  account,  highly 
reprehensible,  and  certain  to  be  attended  with  the  very  worst  conse- 
quences. It  would  be  nothing  less  than  transforming  the  Catholic 
Board — which  possessed  the  dear,  invaluable,  uubought  confidence  of 
the  Irish  people — into  a  terrible  inquisition.  If  such  a  transforma- 
tion were  to  take  place — if  an  assembly,  instituted  for  the  advance- 
ment of  constitutional  freedom,  assumed  to  itself  such  inquisitorial 
privileges,  there  was  an  end  at  once  to  the  security  of  the  best  men. 
No  one,  however  conscious  of  his  own  innocence — however  anxious 
to  do  his  duty  to  his  country  without  a  thought  of  personal  advantage 
to  himself,    could  feel,  or  could  be   t^ai'e.     He  claimed  for  himself 


DANIEL    O  CONNELL,    ESQ.,  M.P.  239 

sincerity  at  least ;  and  he  was  not  conscious  of  ever  having  acted 
otherwise  than  as  he  sincerely  believed  his  duty  to  his  country 
required :  yet,  if  this  system  were  to  be  established,  he  knew  not  how 
soon  he  might  be  unjustly  and  summarily  condemned.  Should  a 
faction  who  could  muster  twenty  or  twenty-five  votes  have  it  in  their 
power  to  act  in  this  manner,  he  knew  not  how  soon  they  might  come 
forward  and  say,  '  Daniel  O'Connell  does  not  deserve  the  confidence 
of  the  Catholic  people.' 

"  He  prayed  the  board  to  act  with  the  dispassionate  candour 
becoming  them  as  a  great,  deliberative  assembly ;  and  concluded  by 
supporting  the  amendment,  in  so  far  as  it  expressed  appi'oval  of  the 
explanations  that  day  oflfered,  and  confidence  in  the  gentlemen  who 
had  made  them." 

However,  the  efforts  to  which  Mr.  O'Connell  alluded  twice  in 
the  foregoing  speech  were  successful.  The  room  had  been 
packed  in  favour  of  the  vote  of  censure ;  and,  after  two 
divisions — "one  upon  the  amendment  of  approval,  and  the  other 
on  a  subsequent  amendment  to  adjourn — the  censuring  vote  was 
carried." 

The  case  of  Taaffe  and  others  against  the  Chief  Justice  of 
the  Queen's  Bench,  mentioned  in  our  account  of  the  arrests  of 
the  preceding  year,  came  now  (November,  1812)  again  before 
the  courts,  after  successive  adjournments  from  the  preceding 
terms. 

Our  concern  is  not  with  a  detailed  history  of  its  progress  ;  and 
we  shall  therefore  give,  without  further  preface,  Mr.  O'Connell's 
speech  in  the  case,  Friday,  November  13,  1812,  in  the  Court  of 
Common  Pleas. 

The  following  is  the  report  of  the  Freemaris  Journal,  in  its 
number  of  Saturday,  November  14  : — 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  appeared  in  court  this  day,  to  make  his  reply  to 
the  arguments  of  Mr.  Pennefather,  as  delivered  on  Tuesday  last. 
The  court  was  excessively  crowded,  and  it  may,  Avith  truth,  be  said 
that  no  person  who  came  for  the  purpose  of  enjoying  a  display  of 
forensic  powers,  went  away  disappointed. 

"  My  lords  (said  Mr.  O'Connell),  I  am  highly  sensible  of  the  in- 
dulgence I  have  received  from  the  Court  on  the  present  occasion.  I 
feel  no  small  i'egret  at  having  consumed  any  portion  of  your  lord- 


240  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

ships'  time,  but  I  shall  be  as  brief  as  possible,  while  I  enclea^'Our,  in 
discharging  the  only  duty  that  now  remains  to  me,  to  reply  to  the 
arguments  of  the  gentlemen  on  the  opposite  side.  And,  my  lords,  in 
discharging  this  duty,  I  shall  avoid  imitating  the  example  set  me  on 
the  last  day  by  one  of  these  gentlemen,  and  (if  I  do  not  err)  by  the 
other  on  a  former  day,  in  travelling  out  of  the  direct  course  which 
the  question  before  the  Court  prescribes.  I  shall  leave  unnoticed  what 
has  been  called  the  '  whimsicality,'  of  introducing  politics  upon  an 
occasion  like  the  present,  and  confine  myself  to  a  mere  question  of  law. 

"  But  though  Mr.  Pennefather,  in  describing  the  nature  of  the 
present  action,  takes  a  fancy  to  quoting  one  of  the  law  books,  and 
calling  it  a  '  bold  attempt  on  the  government  of  the  country  ;'  yet,  in 
explaining  what  I  conceive  to  be  the  law  of  the  land  in  the  case, 
I  will  not,  even  though  I  exclude  political  reflections,  for  a  moment 
persviade  myself  that  I  ought  not  to  speak  my  sentiments  and  those 
of  my  colleagues  upon  it,  with  the  most  unrestrained  and  unem- 
barrassed freedom.  The  question  involves  great  constitutional 
principles.  It  does  not  depend  upon  mere  technical  rules  or  teeh- 
nical  reasonings,  but  must  be  decided  upon  consideration  of  the 
nature  and  extent  of  personal  liberty  in  this  country,  and  the  sense 
judges  have  of  the  rights  of  the  subject,  and  the  redress  they  are 
entitled  to  avail  themselves  of  for  the  injuries  they  suffer. 

"  Little  aid  can  be  obtained  from  modei'n  cases.  The  simple 
question  is,  whether  there  is  a  class  of  magistrates  in  this  country 
entitled  to  issue  their  warrants  without  any  information  upon  oath, 
and  without  any  crime  having  been  actually  committed,  and  entitled 
upon  such  warrants  to  imprison  any  description  of  the  king's  subjects, 
without  having  afterwards  to  make  atonement  and  compensation- 
If  the  Court  decide  with  the  de'^andant,  they  establish  this  monstrous 
proposition.  See  what  the  action  is  :  it  is  an  action  brought  against 
the  defendant  for  false  imprisonment,  and  his  justification  is  that  he 
is  Chief  Justice  of  the  King's  Bench.  This  is  the  proper  form  of  an 
action  brought  against  a  magistrate  who  issues  a  warrant.  The  case 
of  Morgan  v.  Hughes,  in  Term  Reports,  225,  proves  that  it  is 
the  only  form  of  action  suited  to  such  a  case.  This  was  an  action  of 
trespass,  the  defendant  being  accused  of  having  issued  his  warrant, 
and  maliciously  arrested  the  plaintiff.  There  was  a  demurrer  to  the 
declaration,  and  judgment  was  had  that  the  action  should  have  been 
brouo-ht  for  false  imprisonment.  What  is  the  nature  of  the  present 
defence  ?  The  mere  assertion,  that  the  learned  defendant  is  Chief 
Justice  of  the  Court  of  King's  Bench,  and  the  assertion  of  the  mode 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,  M.P.  241 

he  adopted  in  imprisoning  the  plaintiff.  It  does  not  say  that  he 
despatched  his  menial  servant  with  such  commands  as  he  pleased  to 
give  ;  but  it  does  say  that  he  granted  his  warrant  with  such  recitals 
as  his  imagination  suggested.  This  is  the  real  language  of  the  plea. 
It  cannot  be  aided  by  any  intendment — no  presumption  can  be  made 
in  its  favour ;  on  the  contrary,  the  first  principles  of  pleading 
require  that  it  should  be  taken  most  strictly  against  the  defendant. 
This  is  the  rule  laid  down  by  Lord  Coke  (Coke  Littleton,  303-6)  ; 
and  to  show  that  this  general  rule  of  pleading  most  directly  applies 
to  justification,  I  beg  to  refer  you  to  Cummins's  Digest,  E.  17. 
Nothing,  therefore,  can  be  intended  beyond  this  allegation,  that  the 
defendant  was  a  magistrate,  and  arrested  the  plaintiff  by  his  warrant. 
The  Court  cannot  supply  the  allegation: — 1st,  that  the  crime  was 
committed — 2nd,  that  the  plaintiff  was  one  of  the  persons  concerned 
in  that  crime — 3rd,  that  the  defendant  knew  or  suspected  that  the 
plaintiff  was  so  concerned.  These  are  clearly  material  and  travers- 
able allegations,  upon  which  issue  might  be  taken,  and  the  fact 
tried  by  a  jury  ;  but  no  issue  tried  upon  this  plea,  can  bring  any  of 
these  facts  into  controversy.  Upon  the  trial  it  would  not  be  neces- 
sary for  the  defendant  to  prove  any  of  them  ;  so  that  it  is  clear,  that 
if  the  demurrer  be  over-ruled,  the  Court  will  establish  a  right  in  a 
class  of  magistrates,  or  in  some  of  them,  to  arrest  without  knowledge 
— without  suspicion — ^without  a  crime — without  a  criminal  act. 

"  The  class  to  which  I  allude  is,  the  Lord  Chancellor,  the  Lord 
Treasurer,  the  Lord  High  Steward,  the  Lord  Marshal,  the  Lor(j 
High  Constable,  the  four  Judges  of  the  King's  Bench,  and  the  Master 
of  the  Rolls.  (1st  Blackstone,  350.) 

"  I  now  proceed  to  show — 1st,  that  the  plea  does  not  state  any 
matter  sufficient  to  justify  the  imprioonment  of  the  plaintiff;  or,  in 
other  words,  that  the  trespass  is  manifestly  a  false  imprisonment, 
notwithstanding  any  thing  alleged  in  the  plea ;  2ndly,  that  there  is 
nothing  stated  in  the  plea  sufficient  to  bar  the  action  for  false  im- 
prisonment against  the  defendant.  If  I  clearly  establish  the  first,  I 
think  I  shall  go  far  to  induce  the  Court  to  decide  the  second  proposi- 
tion in  my  favour. 

"  Now,  as  to  the  first,  it  seems  unnecessary  to  go  beyond  the 
unrepealed  clause  of  the  great  charter — namely,  that  'no  freeman 
shall  be  imprisoned  unless  by  the  judgment  of  his  peers,  or  by  the  law 
of  the  land.'  Here  I  may  rest  my  client's  cause,  and  call  for  that 
judgment  of  his  peers,  or  that  law  of  the  land  which  dragged  him, 
without  the  ordinary  courtesy  of  summons  or  notice,  from  his  family  ; 

R 


242  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

which  associated  him  through  the  streets  of  this  city,  as  if  he  were  a 
felon,  with  the  thief-takers  of  the  police.     Wliere  is  the  judgment 
which  condemned  him  to  sustain  this  inconvenience  and  contumely  ? 
There  is  none,   my  lords.     It  is  not  pretended  that  there  is  any. 
And   for  law  we  are   presented  with  this  warrant— a  warrant,  not 
only  assuming,  but  creating  all  the  facts,  and  fortified  by  nothing  but 
its    own    allegations,  commanding   the    arrest    of    the    plaintiff — a 
warrant,  distinguishing,  it  is  true,  between  meetings  for  the  purpose, 
and  those  held  under  pretence  of  petitioning  parliament,  but  declar- 
ing guilt  in  either  case.     But  can   it  be  insisted  that  this  warrant 
answers  the  description  of  the  law  of  the  land  ?     It  seems  to  me  to 
be   a  monstrous  pi'oposition  to  call  it  so  ;  and,  indeed,  it  would  be 
more  absurd  to  call   any  man  a  freeman  who  was  subject  to  such  a 
law.     He  would  be  the  abject  slave  of  caprice.     I  know,  my  lords, 
that  a  statute,  the  37th  of  Edward  the  Third,  chapter  1,  has  ex- 
plained the  words  legem  terrce  to  mean  '  due  process  of  law.'     Here 
I  wish  it  to  be  distinctly  understoood,  that  I,  for  the  present,  concede 
in  argument,  that  which,  in  point  of  law,  I  could  not  admit,  save  for 
the  sake  of  argument,  that  the  supposed  offence  charged  upon  my 
client,  is  one  for  which  any  subject  is  liable  to  arrest  before  indict- 
ment.    It  is  not  a  felony  nor  a  breach  of  the  peace,  and,  therefore,  I 
do  not  think  an  arrest  before  an  indictment  was  justifiable  in  this 
case  ;  but  for  the  present  I  concede  that  it  would  have  been  justifiable 
upon  '  due  process  ;'  and  if  this  warrant  be  '  due  process  of  law,'  is 
the  present  question.     I  have  already  shown  that  this  warrant  is  not 
grounded  upon  any  evidence,  a  suspicion  either  of  an  existing  crime, 
or  of  the  plaintiff's  being  a  criminal ;  but  to  sanction  an  arrest,  all 
these  are  necessary  ingredients  in  a  lawful  warrant,  for  no  arrest  can 
be   made   before   indictment,  except  there  be  either  first  a  direct 
charge  upon  oath,  stating  the  existence  of  a  criminal,  and  that  the 
party  actually  is,  or  is  suspected  to  be  the  criminal ;  or,   secondly, 
strong   and  rational  suspicion   declared   on  oath,  of  the   crime  and 
criminal.     That  this  is  the  utmost  extent  of  the  legal   doctrine  of 
arrests — that  these  are  the  legal  grounds  to  justify  the  granting  of 
a  warrant,  appear  from  all  the  books — 4th  Blackstone,  289  ;  2nd 
Hale,  108,  110;  2nd  Hawkins,  135-6.    Hale,  in  page  110,  represents 
the  necessity  of  examining   the  parties  requiring  the  warrant  upon 
oath,  as  to  the  fact  of  the  existence  of  the  crime  and  the  criminal ; 
and  Blackstone  says,  that  '  without  such  oath  no  warrant  should  be 
granted ;'    and  the   same  law   is   laid   down  by   Sergeant  Hawkins. 
By  consulting  these  authorities,   my  lords,  you  will  find  that  I  am 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  243 

borne  out  in  asserting  that  this  is  the  very  extent  of  the  law  ;  for 
more  ancient  writers,  as  Lord  Coke  (2nd  Institute,  51,  52)  had 
asserted  that,  before  indictment  or  presentment,  no  man  could  be 
arrested  ;  and  all  that  Hale,  Hawkins,  and  Blaekstone  contended  for 
is,  that  Lord  Coke  is  mistaken ;  for  that  if  there  be  a  charge  upon 
oath,  a  warrant  to  arrest  may  be  granted  before  indictment.  This 
point — namely,  that  a  charge  upon  oath  sanctions  an  arrest,  is  the 
utmost  they  contend  for ;  and  Hawkins  concludes  his  observations 
upon  the  subject  in  these  woi'ds — '  Yet,  inasmuch  as  justices  of  the 
peace  claim  this  power  (that  of  arresting  before  indictment)  rather 
by  connivance  than  any  express  warrant  of  law  ;  and  since  the 
undue  use  of  it  may  prove  so  highly  prejudicial  to  the  reputation 
as  well  as  the  liberty  of  the  party,  a  justice  cannot  well  be  too 
tender  of  his  proceedings  of  this  kind,  and  seems  to  be  punishable, 
not  only  at  the  suit  of  the  King,  but  also  of  the  party  grieved,  if  he 
grant  any  such  warrant  groundlessly  and  maliciously  without  such 
a  probable  cause  as  might  induce  a  candid  or  impartial  man  to  suspect 
the  party  to  be  guilty.'     (2nd  Hawkins,  135-6.) 

"  We  have  then  got  to  the  extreme  of  the  law  when  we  arrive  at 
arrests  by  warrants,  because  of  a  charge  established  by  oath  ;  and 
an  extreme  which  has  been  resorted  to,  not  because  it  has  the 
sanction  of  any  express  law,  but  by  means  of  its  necessity,  to  prevent 
the  escape  of  felons  before  they  could  be  indicted,  and  from  con- 
nivance at  the  long-used  practice.  It  is  not,  indeed,  in  cases  where 
it  applies  now,  disputed,  because,  in  addition  to  the  authority  on 
which  it  rests  in  the  direct  opinion  of  the  '  sages  of  the  law,'  it  has 
been  recognized  in  some  cases  of  felony  by  those  acts  of  parliament, 
which  direct  the  manner,  in  some  instances,  of  giving  bail  upon  such 
warrants.  But  there  is  no  where  to  be  found  any  case  of  any 
allegation  of  any  law  writer  carrying  the  power  of  arrest  further ; 
for  I  need  not  detain  the  Court  by  any  comment  on  the  passage  in 
2nd  State  Trial,  5,  6,  which  refers  to  Trogmorton  and  Allen  (2  Rolle's 
Abi.,  558). 

"  Mr.  Perrin  has,  with  the  ability  and  learning  he  discovers  on 
every  occasion,  shown  you  that  Hale  must  be  understood  as  meaning 
that  the  warrant  of  the  justice  is  a  justification  to  the  constable  who 
executed  it,  not  that  the  justice  could  protect  himself  by  his  own 
allegation.  This  distinction  is  familiar  to  your  lordships ;  and, 
although  Mr.  Foster  seemed  to  rely  on  the  passage,  to  sustain  the 
defence  of  the  justice  who  issued  the  warrant,  yet,  Mr.  Pennefather 
felt  himself  bound  to  admit  that  the  passage  is  merely  applicable  to 


244  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

the  constable  ;  and  the  case  referred  to,  Trogmorton  and  Allen,  is 
accordingly  the  case  of  a  justification  by  a  constable.  There  is, 
therefore,  I  repeat  it,  not  even  a  solitary  dictum  in  the  books,  and  if 
there  had,  the  research  of  the  counsel  for  the  defendant  would  have 
discovered  it.  There  is  not,  I  confidently  repeat,  a  single  assertion 
in  any  law  book,  that  a  warrant  may  be  legally  issued  without  a 
charge  upon  oath.  It  follows,  therefore,  of  obvious  and  inevitable 
necessity,  that  this  warrant  was  not  legally  issued. 

"  It  was  not  '  due  process  of  law.'  My  client  has  been  illegally, 
and  against  the  provisions  of  the  gre^t  charter,  deprived  of  his 
liberty.     The  defendant  is  guilty  of  false  imprisonment. 

"  This  brings  me  to  the  second  point ;  for  it  is  alleged,  that 
though  the  arrest  was  unjustifiable,  although  the  defendant  be  clearly 
guilty  of  a  trespass  and  false  imprisonment,  yet  he  is  not  responsible 
in  an  action  for  damages.  In  short,  that  although  he  is  not  infallible, 
still  he  is  inviolable  ;  but  I  trust,  notwithstanding,  I  shall  be  able  to 
satisfy  the  Court  of  my  second  proposition — namely,  '  that  the  matter 
stated  in  the  defendant's  plea  is  not  sufficient  to  bar  the  action  for 
this  false  imprisonment.'  The  plea  contains  nothing  but  the  fact 
which  appears  on  the  face  of  the  declaration — viz.,  that  the 
defendant  is  Chief  Justice  of  the  King's  Bench,  with  all  the  authori- 
ties and  rights  belonging  to  that  office,  and  that  he,  as  such,  arrested 
the  plaintiff  by  means  of  a  warrant.  Upon  this  allegation,  the 
counsel  for  the  defendant  contend  that  no  action  lies,  and  conceding 
that  a  trespass  has  been  committed,  they  say,  that  this  is  one  of  the 
instances  in  the  law  where  there  is  an  injury  without  means  of  com- 
pensation, because  the  defendant  being  a  judge  of  a  superior  court,  no 
action  will  be  against  him. 

"  It  is,  my  lords,  readily  admitted,  that  no  action  lies  against  any 
judge  for  any  judicial  act  whatsoever ;  but  we  insist  that  it  does  lie 
against  every  judge  for  ministerial  acts.  This  distinction  was  taken 
by  Mr.  Perrin,  and  sustained  with  his  usual  force  and  ingenuity. 
It  was  admitted  by  Mr.  Foster,  and  though  not  expressly  admitted, 
it  was,  as  I  shall  show,  distinctly  recognized  by  Mr.  Pennefather, 
who,  however,  has  announced  a  new  proposition — namely,  that  no 
action  lies  for  any  act  of  a  judge  of  the  superior  courts,  adding,  in 
the  meantime,  any  act  done  as  a  judge.  Now,  if  by  acts  done  as  a 
judge  he  means  judicial  acts,  this  is  conceded.  If  he  includes 
ministerial  acts,  and  that  the  judges  of  the  superior  courts  are  in  no 
wtse  responsible  in  actions,  although  for  the  same  acts,  and  within 
their  jurisdiction,  inferior  judges  would  be  responsible  ;   this  is  not 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  245 

only  denied,  but  the  charge  of  a  '  hold  attempt'  to  suhvert  principle 
recognized  in  every  case  he  has  himself  cited,  is  retorted,  and  justly 
retorted  on  the  learned  gentleman ;  for,  in  Hammond  and  Howell  (2 
Mod.  2 1 8)  quoted  by  him,  the  Court  expressly  says,  '  though  they 
(the  judges)  were  mistaken,  yet  they  acted  judicially,  and  for  that 
reason  no  action  could  lie  against  the  defendant.'  For  what  reason  ? 
Not  because  the  defendant  was  judge  of  any  particular  court,  but 
because  he  acted  judicially.  And  in  Floyd  v.  Barker  (12th  Coke, 
23rd)  also  cited  by  him,  this  distinction  is  expressly  taken — 'A  judge 
or  justice  of  the  peace  cannot  be  charged  for  conspiracy  for  that 
which  he  did  openly  in  court,  for  the  causes  and  reasons  aforesaid.' 
The  two  next  cases  cited  by  the  learned  gentleman,  not  only  con- 
firms the  distinction  we  rely  on,  but  illustrate  its  application  in 
practice.  These  cases  are  Barnadiston  v.  Soames  (2  Liv.  114),  and 
Ashby  and  White  (2  Lord  Raymond,  938).  In  the  first  of  these 
cases  it  was  held,  that  no  action  would  lie  for  falsely  and  maliciously 
making  a  double  return  to  parliament.  Why  ?  Because  the  judges 
were  of  opinion  that  the  sheriif  acted,  in  that  respect,  judicially.  In 
Ashby  and  White  it  was  held,  that  for  rejecting  the  vote  of  a  person 
qualified  to  vote  at  an  election,  an  action  would  lie  against  the 
sherifi".  Why  ?  Because  it  was  held,  that  the  sheritf  acted,  in  that 
respect,  ministerially.  And  this  distinction  is  further  recognized 
and  acted  on  in  the  next  case  cited  by  the  learned  gentleman,  of 
Miller  v.  Scares  (2  Blackstone,  1141),  where  an  action  was  held  to 
lie  against  the  Commissioners  of  Bankruptcy,  for  improperly  com- 
mitting a  man  for  not  answering  satisfactorily.  It  was  held  to  lie, 
because  their  ofiice  was  considered  executory  and  ministerial,  and 
not  judicial.  Let  me  add  to  these  authorities  the  case  cited  by  Mr. 
Perrin,  and  commented  on  by  the  gentlemen  on  the  other  side,  in 
Greenvelt  v.  Benwell  (in  Salk.  396  ;  Lord  Raymond,  467  ;  and 
Cum.  77).  The  Court  will  find  the  judgment  of  Lord  Holt  given 
very  distinctly  in  Cummins — '  And  that  no  action  will  lie  against 
any  judge  for  what  he  does  judicially,  and  of  record;  but  if  a 
justice  of  the  peace  issue  a  warrant,  and  commit  a  party  without 
cause,  he  may  be  punished,  because  the  act  is  only  ministerial,  and 
the  commitment  only  intended  for  process  and  not  for  punishment ;' 
and  he  cites,  from  12  Coke,  Nudigate's  case.  He  was  a  justice  of 
the  peace,  and  though  he  recorded  a  circumstance  falsely,  yet,  as  he 
acted  as  a  judge,  that  is,  judicially,  no  action  would  lie.  Now, 
compare  the  cases.  K  Nudigate  had  issued  a  groundless  warrant  for 
any  act  of  violence,  an  action  would  have  lain  against  him,  because 


246  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

the  act  was  ministerial ;    but  when  he  acted  judicially  and  upon 
record,  no  such  action  could  be  maintained. 

"  Thus,  my  lords,  all  the  cases  establish  our  distinction  between 
judicial  and  ministerial  acts,  as  well  those  relied  on  at  the  opposite 
side,  as  those  cited  by  Mr.  Perrin.  But  where  is  the  distinction 
stated  by  Mr.  Pennefather  to  be  found  ?  I  have  been  unable  to 
trace  it  in  any  of  the  cases ;  and  if  you  examine  the  authorities  from 
which  he  has  endeavoured  to  infer  such  a  distinction,  I  think  you  will 
join  me  in  considering  that  his  inferences  are  unfounded,  and  his 
positions  untenable. 

"  And  now  having,  I  trust,  established  that  which  is,  indeed,  a 
familiar  distinction  to  your  lordships,  I  shall  proceed  to  show  you 
that  the  issuing  of  the  warrant  by  the  Chief  Justice  was  a  minis- 
terial, and  not  a  judicial  act.  I  admit  that  the  Judges  of  the  King's 
Bench  are  coroners  and  conservators  of  the  peace  throughout  Ireland, 
and  it  is  in  this  capacity  of  conservator  of  the  peace  that  the 
present  warrant  was  issued,  or  indeed  could  have  been  issued.  None 
of  your  lordships,  notwithstanding  the  dignity  and  extent  of  your 
judicial  authority,  could  issue  such  a  warrant,  because  none  of  you  is 
a  conservator  of  the  peace  throughout  the  different  counties.  But 
the  conservator  of  the  peace  was,  and  is,  a  merely  ministerial  oflSicer. 
In  page  354,  volume  1,  Blackstone  says,  that  his  power  consisted  '  in 
suppressing  riots,  and  taking  securities  for  the  peace,  and  in  appre- 
hending felons  and  other  malefactors.  This  would  appear  to  be 
the  full  extent  of  the  common  law  authority  of  conservators  of  the 
peace.  The  Court  is,  of  course,  fully  aware  that  the  constitution  of 
justices  of  the  peace  is  widely  different.  The  power  of  electing 
conservators  of  the  peace  having  been  taken  from  the  people,  and 
vested  in  the  crown,  by  the  34th  of  Edward  the  Third,  chapter  1, 
they  first  got  a  judicial  character,  were  empowered  to  try  offences, 
and  obtained  the  name  of  justices.  (Blackstone,  350.)  The  justices 
of  the  peace  are  judges  of  a  court  of  record — the  conservators  of  the 
peace  are  not  so.  This  power  of  conservator  of  the  peace  the  Chief 
Justice  of  the  King's  Bench  holds  in  common  with  the  Chancellor, 
the  Master  of  the  Rolls,  and  the  other  persons  whom  I  have  named ; 
and  if  this  be  a  good  justification  for  him,  it  would  be  equally  so- 
for  the  Master  of  the  Rolls,  for  he  has  closed  in  him  the  same 
authority  in  his  ministerial  capacity.  Then  was  the  warrant  issued 
improperly,  as  it  was,  in  itself,  a  ministerial  act.  For  this  I  have  the 
express  authority  of  Lord  Holt ;  his  words  are,  an  action  will  lie 
for  improperly  issuing  a  warrant,  because  the  act  is  only  ministerial. 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  247 

and  intended  for  process,  not  punishment,  and  I  have  the  equally 
explicit  authority  of  all  the  cases  from  Windham  v.  Clue,  (Cro.  El. 
130,)  to  Morgan  v.  Hughes,  (Second  Term  Report,  225,)  and  those 
cases  which  occur  every  day,  in  which  actions  are  maintained 
against  justices  of  the  peace  for  issuing  warrants  without  legal 
grounds,  although  those  justices  are  judges  of  the  very  courts  in 
which  the  offences  specified  in  those  warrants  are  triable,  although 
they  have  jurisdiction  over  the  offence  and  the  offender,  and  although 
for  their  judicial  acts  in  that  very  matter  no  action  would  lie.  This, 
then,  is  a  ministerial  act,  done  by  a  ministerial  officer,  for  which, 
whatever  be  the  number  and  value  of  his  other  high  dignities, 
he  is  responsible  to  my  client. 

"  I  shall  now  follow  Mr.  Pennefather  in  a  few  observations  upon 
some  of  the  other  points  which  he  has  laboured  in  this  case  ;  and 
first,  where  he  insists  that  this  must  be  taken  as  a  judicial  act, 
because  it  is  averred  to  have  been  done  by  the  Lord  Chief  Justice  ; 
and  as  we  have  not  traversed  the  fact  of  its  being  so  done,  and 
in  order  to  sustain  this  proposition,  he  cited  Eton  v.  Southly,  from 
Walker.  I  shall  dismiss  the  case  by  observing,  that  all  it  proves  is, 
that  an  allegation  '  that  A.  B.  having  been  possessed  as  a  tenant  at 
will,'  is  a  sufficient  averment  that  he  then  was  tenant  at  will — but  we 
are  not  disputing  upon  averments  in  this  instance.  It  is  sufficiently 
averred  that  the  defendant  was  Chief  Justice,  and  as  such,  namely, 
by  virtue  of  the  office  of  conservator,  which  that  dignity  conferred 
on  him,  issued  this  warrant.  Can  it  be  seriously  contended,  that 
issue  should  have  been  taken  upon  the  title  the  defendant  chose 
to  style  himself  by,  when  he  issued  this  warrant  ?  What  would  the 
jury  have  to  try?  Certainly  something  very  immaterial — the  appel- 
lation the  defendant  chose  to  be  addi-essed  by  at  that  moment.  But 
the  question  is,  whether  this  be  a  judicial  or  a  ministerial  act.  Now, 
can  the  nature  of  the  act  depend  on  the  name  or  title  of  the  actor  ? — 
Is  the  quality  of  the  fact  to  be  changed  with  the  dignity  of  the 
doer  ?  But,  really,  it  does  not  appear  to  me  that  I  should  be  at  all 
justified  in  detaining  your  lordships  upon  this  part  of  the  case. 

"  The  second  point  in  Mr.  Pennefather's  argument,  to  which  I 
have  to  entreat  a  few  moments  of  your  attention,  is  that  part  of  the 
case  in  which,  without  admitting  the  distinction  between  judicial  and 
ministerial  acts,  he  still  acknowledged  its  authority,  by  the  pains  he 
took  to  prove  the  granting  of  a  wari'ant  to  be  a  judicial  act.  He 
first  insisted  that  no  action  would  lie  for  unjustly  issuing  a  fiat,  and 
then  he  compared  warrants  to  liatb.     Now,  it  may  be  conceded  that 


248  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

no  action  would  lie  in  the  first  case ;  but  if  warrants  be  fiats  as  pro- 
cess to  bring  the  party  in,  then  the  authorities  and  cases  in  which 
actions  have  lain  against  justices  of  the  peace  for  issuing  warrants 
are  all  mistaken,  and  a  discovery  is  made  that  by  comparing  warrants 
to  fiats,  the  defendants  would  have  been  entitled  to  non-suit  the 
plaintiffs  in  those  actions — a  mighty  discoveiy,  truly  1 ! !  But  if  this 
be  a  point  of  non-suit  only  for  a  Chief  Justice,  this  absolutely  would 
follow,  that  if  this  identical  warrant  had  been  issued  by  my  Lord 
Mayor  A.  B.  King,  who  is  a  magistrate  of  great  dignity,  and  I  pre- 
sume entitled  to  some  veneration  from  the  counsel  at  the  other  side — 
if  the  Lord  Mayor,  who  is  also  a  presiding  judge  at  the  sessions,  had 
issued  this  very  warrant,  an  action  might  have  lain  against  him, 
because  it  was  ministerial,  though  to  the  extent  of  trying  and  punish- 
ing this  crime,  he  is  as  fully  a  judge  as  the  present  defendant. 

*'  It  is  contended  that  the  superior  quality  of  the  Chief  Justice 
alters  the  act  into  a  judicial  one — it  becomes  a  fiat  and  not  a  warrant, 
and  no  action  can  be  maintained ;  but  there  is,  really,  no  similitude 
between  the  two ;  a  fiat  is  only  an  order  to  the  ofiicer  to  make  out  a 
writ  or  process — a  warrant  is  the  process  itself ;  the  writ  issued  on 
the  fiat  must,  of  necessity,  be  returnable  in  the  court  out  of  Avhich  it 
issued — a  warrant  is  not  returnable  at  all,  and  it  is  intended  to  force 
in  a  party  to  any  court  having  cognizance  of  the  ofience,  within 
the  territorial  limit  of  the  officer  who  grants  it.  In  Blackstone,  294, 
are  these  words :  '  The  warrant  may  be  either  general  or  special ; 
general,  to  bring  the  offender  before  any  justice — special,  to  bring 
him  before  any  individual  justice."  So  that  this  warrant  is  part  of  a 
case  afterwards  tried  before  the  defendant,  only  because  he  chose 
not  to  send  the  plaintiff"  to  the  sessions.  It  has,  therefore,  no 
necessary  connection  with  the  Court  of  King's  Bench,  nor  indeed  any 
other  connection  with  that  court,  but  what  the  defendant  chose  to 
give  it. 

"  Next,  the  case  of  the  King  v.  White  (Cases  Temp.  Hard.  37)  has 
been  relied  on.  To  prevent  any  controversy  I  have  brought  the 
book  to  read  it.  [Here  Mr.  O'Connell  referred  to  the  book,  but  it 
was  thought  unnecessary  by  the  Court,  and  passed  without  debate.] 
Now,  what  does  this  case  prove  ?  Does  it  convert  any  ministerial  act 
into  a  judicial  act  ?  Does  it  alter  or  qualify  the  authoi-ity  of  the  cases 
I  have  mentioned.  It  proves  nothing  but  what  is  familiar  in  every 
day's  practice,  namely,  that  all  officers  of  justice  are  under  the 
control  of  the  King's  Bench.  Where  complaints  are  made  to  that 
court  of  any  magistrates  or  officers,  if  the  fact  be  admitted,  thej 


DANIEL    o'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  249 

grant  an  attachment — if  the  fact  be  disputed,  they  grant  an  informa- 
tion to  have  it  tried  by  a  jury.  In  the  King  v.  Reilly,  (T.  T.  Rep. 
204,)  the  King's  Bench  attached  Mr.  Reilly  for  calling  a  meeting  of 
the  county.  Lord  Earlsfoii;  there  lays  it  down,  that  the  Court  of 
King's  Bench  has  a  general  control  over  all  inferior  courts  and 
inferior  officers,  and  the  power  of  punishing  them  by  attachment  for 
misconduct ;  and  it  clearly  follows,  that  an  attachment  might,  upon 
these  admitted  principles,  have  been  granted,  if  the  constable  had 
disobeyed  the  warrant  of  any  other  magistrate.  Thus,  the  King  v. 
White  proves  nothing  but  what  was  not  denied,  viz.  the  power  of 
the  Court  of  King's  Bench  to  punish  the  misconduct  of  inferior 
officers  as  for  a  contempt  of  that  court.  The  arguments  drawn  from 
the  cases  of  fiats  do  not  apply  ;  and  if  they  did,  they  would  prove  too 
much,  and  are  encountered  by  a:ll  the  cases  in  which  magistrates 
have  been  convicted  on  actions  for  issuing  warrants.  The  capacity 
in  which  the  defendant  acted  is  a  matter  of  law  not  capable  of  being 
tried  by  a  jury,  and  not  altering  the  nature  of  the  act.  That  act 
was  a  ministerial  act,  which  is  not  protected  from  actions,  and  not  a 
judicial  act,  which  is  protected ;  and,  lastly,  this  arrest  upon  those 
pleadings  is  a  false  imprisonment,  for  which  the  defendant  is  bound 
to  abide  the  verdict  of  a  jury. 

*'  I  have  now,  my  lords,  argued  the  case,  and  have  only  to  add  a 
word  or  two  in  reply  to  some  general  topics  introduced  by  Mr. 
Pennefather — 1st,  he  said  that  this  was  one  of  that  class  of  injuries 
for  which  there  is  no  remedy.  He  cited  the  case  of  Lecaux  v. 
Eden,  but  it  does  not  prove,  by  any  means,  what  he  would  wish  to 
establish.  The  aggrieved  party  here,  though  he  did  not  get  imme- 
diate redress,  was  told  that  an  appeal  to  the  Court  of  Admiralty 
would  be  efficacious.  Mr.  Pennefather  talked  of  a  case  of  felony  in 
which  the  party  had  no  redress  by  the  recovery  of  damages,  but  it 
could  not  escape  observation,  that  if  he  was  not  remunerated  in 
money,  he  would  in  the  punishment  of  the  offender.  He  commented 
upon  the  expediency  of  suffering  a  private  injury  for  the  purpose  of 
effecting  a  public  good  ;  but  though  I  admit,  most  cordially,  the 
general  principle,  yet  I  deny  its  application  in  the  present  instance. 
He  has  bestowed  some  words  upon  the  necessity  that  existed  for  the 
defendant's  interference  in  the  case  of  the  Catholic  delegates.  I  do 
not  see  this  necessity.  There  were  many  persons  who  could,  with 
the  greatest  propriety  and  delicacy,  fill  his  place  on  such  an  occasion. 
But  if,  as  Mr.  Pennefather  would  contend,  the  Chief  Justice  acted  in 
his  judicial  capacity  in  granting  a  warrant  against  my  client,  see  to 


250  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

what  a  predicament  he  has  been  reduced.  He  has  first  judged  my 
client ;  secondly,  resorted  to  the  mockery  of  a  process  to  bring  him 
to  trial ;  and,  thirdly,  judged  him  again  !  And  what  would,  my 
lords,  be  the  consequence  of  suffering  this  extraordinary  and 
monstrous  power  in  a  chief  j  ustice  ?  Why,  my  lords,  if  my  Lord 
Ellenborough,  the  English  Chancellor,  or  the  Master  of  the  Rolls,  had 
conceived  any  malice  to  any  of  your  lordships  to-morrow,  they  might 
issue  their  warrants  and  drag  you  from  your  bench  to  answer  a 
fictitious  charge  before  them,  and  do  all  this,  subjecting  themselves 
to  no  penalty ! 

"  Mr.  Pennefather  has,  lastly,  told  us,  that  the  subject  could  resort 
to  parliament,  in  the  event  of  any  unwarrantable  proceedings  on  the 
part  of  the  Chief  Justice.  Why,  my  lords,  what  a  mockery  this  is  ! 
If  the  Irish  peasant  has  been  aggrieved  by  a  chief  justice,  it'  is  a 
consolation  for  him  to  have  the  liberty  of  making  a  miserable 
passage  to  Holyhead,  then  walking  barefoot  to  London,  and,  lastly, 
stating  his  wrongs  to  the  imperial  parliament,  in  a  language  unknown 
to  them.  My  lords,  I  am  confident  you  cannot — from  a  due  consi- 
deration of  the  authorities  I  have  cited,  and  the  reasoning  that  has 
been  advanced  on  our  behalf — decide  against  us. 

"  The  Court  signified  that  judgment  would  be  given  on  Tuesday." 

However,  at  the  sitting  of  the  Court  upon  the  next  day,  Lord 
Norbury  announced  that  himself  and  brother  judges  were  so  far 
from  having  made  up  their  minds  on  the  point  at  issue,  that 
they  "  required  more  argument  from  counsel,"  and  appointed 
the  succeeding  Tuesday  (that  day  week)  for  the  hearing. 

Upon  the  day  last  mentioned,  one  counsel  was  heard  at 
either  side.  During  the  argument  the  following  incident 
occurred : — 

Mr.  Justice  Fox,  after  several  remarks  on  the  case  made  for 
the  defendant,  observed,  that  "much  of  the  difficulty  that 
existed  in  his  mind  would  be  removed,  had  the  information  on 
oath,  upon  which  the  defendant  had  acted,  been  set  forth ;  but 
it  was  designedly  omitted,  and  a  suppositious  case  put  for  the 
purpose  of  inducing  that  Court  to  decide  upon  speculative 
matter.  Two  great  principles  were  put  in  direct  conflict ;  first, 
that  a  judge  was  not  liable  to  action  for  judicial  acts ;  and, 
secondly,  that  the  subject  should  not  be  arrested  contrary  to 
law,  which  absolutely  required  information  upon  oath. 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,     M.P.  251 

"  Lord  Norbury  wished  to  hear  the  whole  of  the  arguments 
before  he  would  give  any  opinion. 

"  Mr.  Justice  Fox  said  he  had  given  no  opinion,  and  any 
insinuation  of  the  kind  was  uncalled  for  and  unnecessary. 

"  Judge  Fletcher  thought  that  the  right  of  any  one  of  the 
four  judges  to  propound  his  doubts  to  counsel  could  not  be 
disputed.  It  was  a  conscientious  duty  upon  them  to  suggest 
those  doubts,  that  counsel  might  remove  them  if  they  could ;  he 
wished  to  know  for  what  other  purpose  counsel  attended 
there,  and  whether  argument  was  for  those  who  might  have 
already  made  up  their  minds,  or  for  those  who  still  entertain 
doubts. 

*'  Lord  Norbury  said  he  had  thrown  out  no  insinuation  of  the 
kind  alluded  to  by  his  learned  brother.  He  had  just  wished  to 
say  that  he  should  reserve  his  opinion  till  the  Court  pro- 
nounced judgment,  and  then  would  give  it,  as  he  was  capable  of 
doing. 

"  Judge  Fletcher  said  they  were  all  capable." 

And  so  the  squabble  ended. 

The  impertinence  of  Lord  Norbury  was  not  favourable  to 
the  success  of  his  views  on  the  matters  before  them.  The 
species  of  personal  insult  he  thus  wantonly  and  incautiously 
flung  upon  his  colleagues  on  the  bench  was  calculated  to  create, 
in  their  minds,  feelings  to  counterpoise  that  overweening  consi- 
deration for  a  brother  judge  assailed,  which  had  hitherto  made 
them  neglectful  of  the  endangered  rights  of  the  subject.  How- 
ever, notwithstanding  this  escapade,  and  the  feelings  it  may  have 
occasioned,  they  concurred,  for  the  present,  with  Lord  Norbury, 
in  deferring  judgment  until  the  ensuing  term. 

The  excitement  of  the  period  rendered  every  meeting  of  the 
Catholic  Board  at  this  time  interesting.  We  therefore  copy 
largely  from  the  reports,  such  as  they  were  then  furnished  by 
the  Dublin  newspapers,  of  those  meetings. 

Mr.  O'  Connell's  part  in  the  agitation  was  becoming  every  day 
more  and  more  difficult.  Fierce  passions  had  been  aroused  by 
the  events  of  the  elections ;  and  not  only  was  there  the  exacer- 
bation of  feeling  between  political  opponents,  but  distrusts, 
jealousies,    and  heats  of   all    kinds    were    rife    among   parties 


252  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

who  thought  and  had  hitherto  acted  together  in  poHtical 
matters. 

In  the  tumult  of  these  feelings,  there  was  considerable  danger 
to  the  popular  party,  that  the  great  objects  for  which  they  had 
been  labouring  would  come  to  be  forgotten,  or  else  be  wilfully 
sacrificed  to  private  resentments.  It  will  be  seen,  in  these 
speeches  of  Mr.  O'Connell  at  the  various  meetings  of  the 
Catholic  Board,  from  early  in  November  to  the  end  of  1812, 
how  earnestly  he  laboured  to  avert  these  disasters,  and  once 
more  combine  all  for  the  common  good. 

On  the  5th  December,  1812,  he  rose  in  the  Catholic  Board 
to  move  for  an  aggregate  meeting,  pursuant  to  notice  given. 
He  commenced  by  alluding  to  the  stormy  character  of  the  meet- 
ing which  immediately  preceded  that  in  which  he  was  speaking, 
and  to  some  misconceptions  as  to  the  manner  in  which  the 
voting  had  been  taken  in  the  divisions  that  had  then  occurred. 
As  we  have  obviated  the  necessity  of  this  explanation,  by  record- 
ing the  proceedings  alluded  to  in  their  true  sense,  it  will  be 
unnecessary  to  give  this  part  of  his  speech. 

*'  But  for  the  impossiblity  of  getting  a  sufficient  hearing,  he 
had  intended  (at  their  last  meeting)  to  have  proposed  this  reso- 
lution for  an  aggregate  meeting,  as  the  period  at  which  it  could 
have  been  serviceable  was  so  fast  elapsing.  The  purposes  for 
which  it  was  to  be  called  were  :  first,  to  redeem  their  character 
(if  it  could  be  redeemed  after  their  own  acts)  from  the  charges 
of  entering  into  petty  private  squabbles,  while  the  enemy  were 
absolutely  in  our  country.  He  did  not  think  it  necessary  to 
reserve  the  name  of  Christopher  Hely  Hutchinson  for  moments 
of  tranquillity,  when  every  instant  menaced  the  country  with  the 
loss  of  the  services  of  that  excellent  man.  He  dreaded  that  it 
was  already  too  late — the  moment  he  was  speaking  should  have 
been  the  moment  of  the  aggregate  meeting.  To  compliment 
the  family  of  Hutchinson  and  show  Catholic  gratitude,  was  the 
second  object  of  such  a  meeting — to  complain  that  the  city  of 
Cork  was  misrepresented.  Mr.  Hutchinson's  manly  and  gene- 
rous support  of  the  Catholics  had  earned  him  the  bitter  hostility 
of  the  government;  every  engine  was  set  in  play  by  them — every 
retainer  of  the  Castle,  down  to  the  lowest  contributor  to  its 


DA.NIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  253 

amusements,  was  sent  off  to  poll  against  the  Man  of  the  People's 
choice  and  heart.  The  pleasures  of  our  paltry  Irish  court  were 
suspended,  Casino  stood  still,  and  every  creature  was  sent  down, 
even  the  footmen  were  packed  off  in  coachfuls. 

"  He  thought  that  on  such  a  subject  he  would  have  been  heard 
with  patience  ;  and  indeed  he  had  been  offered  three  words  by 
one  gentlemen,  and  ten  minutes  by  another,  but  this  latter  gene- 
rous offer  was  not  seconded.  Not,  however,  to  lose  more  time, 
he  would  pass  by  all  that  he  had  just  reason  to  complain  of  and 
deplore,  and  urge  that  immediate  steps  should  be  taken  to  assist 
the  Catholics  of  Cork  in  procuring  redress  for  the  injury  done 
them  by  the  exclusion  of  Mr.  Hutchinson  from  parliament." 

A  gentlemen  present  having  mentioned  that  the  Hutchinson 
family  had  declined  some  offers  made  to  them, 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  said,  that  the  explanation  of  the  gentleman  who 
had  first  spoken,  only  pi'oved  that  the  Hutchinson  family,  with  all 
their  characteristic  dignity  of  feeling,  would  not  permit  the  expense 
of  a  petition  to  be  defrayed  by  public  subscription,  where  any  mem- 
ber of  that  family  appealed,  in  his  own  right,  to  the  House  of 
Commons  for  justice.  But  the  Catholics  of  Cork  were  freeholders, 
and  they  could,  in  their  own  right,  petition  the  House  of  Commons 
against  tbe  return  of  the  presiding  ofRcer.  It  would  be  proper, 
therefore,  to  have  an  aggregate  meeting,  for  the  purpose  of  showing 
that  the  Catholics  of  Ireland  are  ready  to  bear  a  proportion  of  the 
expense,  in  the  cause  in  which  the  whole  country  was  as  much  con- 
cerned as  the  freeholders  and  freemen  of  the  city  of  Cork.  With 
that  view  he  would  move — 


"  '  That  an  aggregate  meeting  of  the  Catholics  of  Ireland  be  held  at  the 
little  theatre,  Fishamble-street,  on  Tuesday,  the  15th  day  of  December, 
instant,  to  take  into  consideration  the  measures  necessarily  connected  with  our 
petition,  and  to  afford  some  proof  of  the  Irish  sentiment  towards  the  Honourable 
Christopher  Hely  Hutchinson  ;  and  that  Mr.  Hay  be  requested  to  write  to  the 
secretary  of  the  Catholic  Board,  in  Cork,  to  express  the  strong  personal 
anxiety  of  every  individual  member  of  this  board,  that  the  Catholics  of  Cork 
should  use  the  most  strenuous  exertions  to  procure  the  success  of  a  petition  to 
parliament  against  the  persons  who  have,  for  the  present,  excluded,  from  the 
presentation  of  that  city,  a  man  distinguished  among  the  first  of  Irish  patriots, 
the  Honourable  Christopher  Hely  Hutcliinson.'  " 


After  some  debate  on  the  shortness  of  notice,  the  resolution 
was  passed  ;  and  some  other  matters  having  been  also  disposed  of. 


254  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

Dr.  Droragoole  revived  the  subject  of  the  vote  of  censure;  and 
in  an  able  speech  contended  against  its  impolicy,  concluding  with 
a  motion  to  the  following  effect : — 

' '  Resolved — That,  in  order  to  meet  the  public  and  private  calumnies  which 
the  enemies  of  religious  liberty  have  circulated,  Ave  feel  ourselves  bound  to 
declare,  that  the  resolutions  of  last  spring  and  summer,  respecting  candidates 
for  parliament,  could  not  be,  and  were  not  intended  to  enjoin  or  sanction  the 
violation  of  promises  entered  into  at  any  time  previous  to  their  adoption." 

Mr.  O' Gorman  recommended  the  adoption  of  this  resolution. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  said  he  was  anxious  to  second  the  motion,  as 
well  because  he  concurred  most  heartily  in  every  thing  that  fell  from 
his  respectable  friend,  Dr.  Dromgoole,  as  from  his  wish  to  take  at 
length  an  opportunity  of  delivering  his  sentiments  distinctly  upon 
the  subject  which  had  caused  so  much  of  agitation  amongst  the 
Catholics  themselves.  One  would  imagine  that  we  really  were  at  a 
loss  for  enemies,  so  sedulous  did  we  appear  to  excite  them  amongst 
ourselves.  One  would  suppose  that  Ireland  was  not  sufficiently 
divided  and  distracted  already,  but  that  division  and  dissension 
in  the  Catholic  board  could  be  aiforded  in  addition  and  as  a  pastime. 
Indeed,  the  progress  of  this  unfortunate  feud  in  the  board  might 
have  been  arrested  at  a  certain  period.  Perhaps,  I  draw  upon  my 
mere  vanity,  when  I  indulge  the  dream  that  I  could  sooner  have 
terminated  it ;  but  full  sure  I  am,  that  I  ought  to  have  sooner 
endeavoured  to  do  so,  but  I  was  restrained  by  motives  which,  upon 
reflection,  I  am  unable  to  justify. 

*'  It  is  due  to  candour  to  state  them  : — in  the  first  place,  it  was 
impossible  not  to  see,  that  your  resolution,  although  dignified  with 
the  appellation  of  an  abstract  proposition,  was  intended  first,  and 
principally,  not  altogether,  for  a  single  individual.  I  do  not  say  that 
it  was  the  design  of  the  movers  to  use  it  as  the  instrument  of  par- 
ticular vengeance  ;  they  have  disavowed  any  such  design,  and  we 
are  bound,  as  we  are  ready,  to  believe  them.  The  effect,  however, 
was  precisely  what  I  have  stated  with  the  individual  thus  alluded  to. 
I  mean  Mr.  Lalor  ;  I  am  proud  to  avow  my  conviction.  I  have  the 
pleasure  to  be  his  intimate  friend  ;  I  have  the  honor  to  be  his  kins- 
man ;  I  boast  of  his  friendship,  because  I  have  long  known  his 
worth  in  all  the  relations  of  private  life,  and  in  our  public  cause.  I 
have  seen  him  in  this  board,  ever  ready  to  adopt  the  most  manly, 
spirited,  and  honourable  course  ;  he  never  spoke  amongst  us  of  entering 
into  any  timid  compromise  with  our  enemies  ;    he  never  shrunk  from 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  255 

danger.  When  we  were  menaced  with  any  persecution,  he  was  of 
the  first  to  throw  himself  forward ;  his  spirit  rose  with  our  perils, 
ay,  and  his  determination  increased  with  onr  difficulties.  I  loved 
him,  because  I  saw  that  his  views  were  confined  to  the  good  of  his 
country — that  he  had  not,  and  could  not  have  any  personal  motive — 
that,  with  generous  heart  and  open  hand,  he  contributed  to  all  your 
expenditures,  and  that  his  existence  was  ever  at  your  service.  I  saw 
that  every  vote  he  gave  in  your  board  or  committee,  was  precisely 
that  which  struck  my  humble  judgment  as  the  best  calculated  to  serve 
your  interests. 

*'  With  those  public  and  private  qualifications,  I  was,  and  am 
proud  of  obtaining  the  friendship  of  my  respected  relative.  And  I  now 
condemn  that  species  of  mistaken  delicacy,  which  prevented  me  at  an 
early  stage  of  this  business,  from  taking  an  active  part  in  opposition 
to  your  resolution  ;  I  imagined  that  my  opposition  would  be  at- 
tributed to  the  zeal  of  private  friendship,  and  not  to  that  which,  in 
truth,  suggested  it — the  firm  conviction  of  my  conscience.  There 
was  another  motive  which  also  contributed  to  paralyze  my  resistance 
to  the  resolution  of  last  meeting — I  am  ashamed  to  have  yielded  to  it 
for  one  moment^ — it  was  this :  Mr.  Lalor's  vindication,  which  has 
appeared  in  the  public  papers,  was  well  known  to  have  been  written 
by  me  ;  it  was  known  that  I  had  written  it,  merely  in  the  exercise  of 
professional  skill,  and  for  the  ordinary  inducements  of  professional 
exertions.  I  did  not  feel  myself  at  liberty  to  refuse  drawing  it  in 
that  capacity,  but  in  none  other  would  I  have  consented  to  do  so.  I 
may  be  much  mistaken,  but  I  thought  that  I  ought  not  to  lend 
myself  personally  to  any  part  of  that  vindication.  With  all  the  facts 
(except  a  single  one  of  no  moment  to  the  general  question,)  I  was  a 
total  stranger  ;  and  in  the  controversy  as  to  the  then  pending  elec- 
tion, if  I  were  personally  to  have  interfered  at  all,  it  would  most 
certainly  have  been  in  favour  of  the  candidates  who  have  succeeded. 
Having,  however,  once  acted  as  Mr.  Lalor's  counsel,  I  am  ashamed 
that  I  shrunk  from  the  base  calumny  which  might  have  imputed  to 
me  the  sentiments  of  profession,  in  resisting  the  general  vote  of 
censure — it  was  unbecoming  of  me  to  yield  to  so  paltry  and  pitiful  an 
influence  of  delicacy.  You  well  know  whether  I  am  a  man  likely  to 
be  influenced  in  my  conduct  in  this  board,  by  any  other  motives 
than  those  of  honour  and  of  conscience.  I  speak  of  myself  with  all 
humility,  yet  I  own  I  entertain  the  expectation  that  my  countrymen 
in  general  require  not  from  me  any  defence  against  the  imputation 
of  mean  or  selfish  motives  ;  yet  tliey  were  these  false  delicacies  that 


256  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

prevented  ray  opposing  the  resolution  of  abstract  censure,  as  it 
has  been  called,  determinedly  and  upon  principle. 

"  For  I  could  not  see  what  right  or  authority  you  had  to  pass  any 
such  resolution.  If  Mr.  Lalor  had  forfeited  the  confidence  of  the 
Catholics  of  the  county  of  Tipperary,  they  might  have  declared  that 
he  was  no  longer  to  be  a  manager  of  their  petition,  as  the  Catholics 
of  Newry  did  with  respect  to  Mr.  Jennings,  and  fi'om  that  moment 
he  would  have  ceased  to  be  a  member  of  this  board  :  but  when  you 
passed  a  vote  of  censure,  you  clearly  travelled  out  of  your  authority, 
and  into  the  hands  of  the  Attorney-General — you  abandoned,  for  a 
moment,  the  conduct  of  your  petition,  for  which  alone  you  are 
appointed,  and  you  committed  yourselves  to  the  tender  mercies  of 
your  friends  in  the  King's  Bench.  It  is,  therefore,  fortunate  that 
your  resolution  passed,  as  1  am  ready,  if  necessary,  to  show,  irre- 
gularly, and  after  having  been,  in  point  of  fact,  negatived.  I  do 
not  say  this  to  reflect  upon,  or  to  diminish  the  triumph  of  those  who 
have  succeeded  in  that  vote  ;  I  introduce  it  simply  to  show  you,  that 
we  have  a  valid  defence  against  any  attack  of  the  Attorney- General 
upon  this  ground — an  attack  which,  I  am  convinced,  he  would  have 
already  commenced,  but  that  he  and  your  other  enemies  imagine  that 
you  are  about  to  do  their  work  for  them,  and  to  destroy  yourselves 
by  your  own  dissensions. 

"  There  is  an  unhappy  spirit  broke  out  amongst  us.  It  is  the 
inevitable  consequence  of  turning  this  board  into  a  species  of  mock 
tribunal,  and  destroying  individuals  with  an  axe,  which  you  call 
'  abstract  censure.'  In  plain  truth,  how  is  it  possible  we  should  judge 
with  discretion  or  discrimination  upon  the  motives  that  may  impel 
private  individuals  ?  Their  neighbours  in  their  respective  counties 
may  be  able  to  judge  of  them,  and  they  certainly  are  able  to  punish 
them  by  exclusion  from  this  board.  But  how  are  you  to  summon  wit- 
nesses or  to  examine  them,  to  form  any  estimate  of  facts  ?  I  will  tell 
you  what  the  witnesses  are — public  report — a  liar  to  a  proverb — 
and  anonymous  calumny — an  assassin  upon  record.  I  myself,  for  ex- 
ample, have  no  less  than  five  anonymous  letters  lying  upon  my  table, 
which  charge  my  estimable  friend  with  every  atrocity.  I  know  of 
my  own  knowledge,  that  it  is  simply  impossible  that  some  of  them 
should  be  true — I  am  convinced  they  are  all  false.  Yet,  how  many 
members  of  this  board — how  many  excellent  and  truly  honest  men 
may  not  be  influenced  in  their  decision  of  Mr.  Lalor's  case,  by  com- 
munications which  may  have  reached  them  in  a  similar  way ! 

"  In  truth,   it  would  be  most  dangerous  for  us  to  usurp  the  power 


DANIEL    O  CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  257 

of  judging  of  facts,  which  we  want  the  means  to  investigate.  But 
my  great  objection  must  be  repeated  :  the  discussion  of  questions 
of  tliis  nature,  affecting  particular  individuals,  must  necessarily  tend 
to  excite  personal  animosity  amongst  us,  and  to  produce  irritation  and 
rancour.  I  appeal  to  you,  whether  it  has  not  already  had  this  effect. 
Indeed,  I  need  not  make  the  appeal ;  there  is  not  a  man  in  the  board 
who  has  not  seen,  with  regret,  a  spirit  of  violence  and  of  hatred — the 
very  genius  of  personal  malignity  settling  here,  where  all  was  peace, 
and  unanimity,  and  cordiality.  And  have  we  not  enemies  enough, 
and  to  spare  ?  Have  we  not  Lord  Manners  and  His  Grace  of 
Richmond  in  front,  whilst  the  Attorney- General  and  the  Dublin 
Grand  Jury  hang  on  our  rear  ?  Have  we  not  on  our  flank,  the  bi- 
goted Liverpool,  and  that  Castlereagh,  long  exercised  in  eveiy  dark 
stratagem  of  ruin,  who  would,  for  emolument,  barter  a  seat  in  heaven 
if  he  had  any  interest  in  that  country.  At  this  moment  bigotry  is 
awakened  from  the  slumber  into  which  Protestant  liberality,  in 
Ireland,  had  cast  her — bigotry,  at  the  command  of  power — bigotry, 
lured  by  the  beloved  voice  of  interest,  has  aroused  in  every  part  of 
the  land.  The  first  in  station  and  in  rank  set  the  example  of  obe- 
dience to  the  command  which  they  themselves  issued.  Every  little 
village  bigot  in  the  land  is  animated  with  the  hope  of  discounting 
his  despicable  malignity  into  the  pay  and  plunder  of  some  office. 
Mark  the  active  rancour  of  their  hostility :  Hutchinson — the  pa- 
triot Hutchinson — is  opposed  in  Cork  for  being  your  champion. 
The  opposition  of  the  Castle  stoops  to  all  the  meanness  of  personal 
animosity  ;  it  disgorges  its  domestics  and  menials,  from  the  highest  to 
the  lowest,  against  him ;  the  refined  amusements  of  our  refined 
government  are  suspended — even  Cassino  stood  still,  and  the  tea- 
table  was  unattended — every  body  was  absent — every  body  was  sent 
to  oppose  Hutchinson,  because  he  was  the  friend  of  the  Catholics. 

"  The  clergy,  who  sometimes  have  a  most  admirable  instinct  in 
discovering  what  is  for  their  interest  here,  as  well  as  hereafter,  are 
many  of  them  active  against  us  ;  they  are  easily  marshalled  under 
the  auspices  of  a  right  rev.  prelate  of  the  Established  Church — the 
son  of  popish  parents — the  brother  of  a  popish  priest,  who  has  pub- 
lished a  pompous  pamphlet  against  us,  of  great  promise  and  pretensions, 
but  of  little  performance,  save  what  it  effects  by  the  very  difficult  and 
novel  process  of  repeating  calumnies  a  thousand  times  refuted,  and 
abjured,  and  contradicted  upon  oath,  by  every  Catholic  in  Ireland. 
I  should  be  content  if  we  were  at  leisure  to  investigate  the  worthy 
prelate's  motives,  or  that  we  even  had  an  opportunity  of  printing,  in 

S 


258  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

the  same  shape  with  his  pamphlet,  another  literary  morceau  of 
the  learned  and  pious  divine.  It  was,  I  believe,  his  first  attempt — a 
farce,  called  the  '  Generous  Impostor  1' — oh,  the  generous  impostor  ! 
The  theatrical  dictionary  informs  us  that  this  farce  was  damned  ;  a 
friend  of  mine  who  happened  to  have  seen  it,  assures  us  that  there  was 
a  warmth  of  expression  in  it — he  would  not  for  the  world  call  it  an 
obscenity,  which  in  some  quarters  would  almost  atone  for  its  dulness, 
but  it  was  too  dull  even  for  the  vicious  taste  of  a  London  audience  to 
preserve  it  for  its  seasoning.  But,  perhaps,  this  pamphlet  is  as 
great  a  farce,  in  the  FitzwiUiam  administration,  as  the  silent  exertions, 
if  not  the  phamphlets  of  the  divine,  were  at  the  other  side — oh, 
the  generous  impositor ! 

"  Look  to  the  counties — see  how  you  are  calumniated.  I  have 
ali'eady  more  than  once  had  occasion  to  remark,  the  principle  of  this 
administration  is  falsehood ;  this  principle  betrays  itself  in  all  its 
acts ;  it,  therefore,  unblushingly  circulates  its  calumnies  against  us, 
with  the  most  thorough  conviction  of  their  total  want  of  truth.  Where 
it  cannot  procure  the  direct  assertion  of  an  untruth,  it  is  content 
with  an  insinuation  containing  the  same  meaning.  Thus,  for  ex- 
ample, a  fraction  of  the  county  of  Dublin  Grand  Jury  could  never 
have  dared  to  charge  the  Catholics  of  Ireland  plainly  and  dii'ectly 
with  high  treason,  but  they  have  had  the  meanness  to  insinuate  it 
covertly  and  in  bad  English.  We  should  thank  them  little  for  the  pru- 
dence which  taught  them  to  avoid  the  direct  assertion,  when  we  meet 
the  depravity  that  allowed  them  to  make  this  oblique  and  unmanly 
attack  on  our  characters.  Where  is  the  individual  amongst  them 
that  would  venture  to  make  the  foul  and  false  insinuation  of  dis- 
loyalty to  any  gentleman  of  this  board  ?  and  if  there  wei'C  any  indi- 
vidual so  rash  as  to  use  the  insinuation,  I  know  the  chastisement  he 
would  meet  with  and  receive.  But,  as  a  body,  Ave  are  calumniated 
with  safety,  because  we  are  idly  busied  in  dissension  and  division 
amongst  ourselves. 

"  Take  another  example — one  of  direct  falsehood — what  Shakspeare 
calls  'the  lie  direct ;'  and  not  as  in  the  case  of  the  grand  jury,  the 
*  lie  by  equivocation.'  An  advertisement  has  appeared  in  the 
Dublin  papers,  stating  that  a  meeting  of  the  Protestant  freemen, 
freeholders,  and  inhabitants  of  Dublin  had  taken  place.  Now,  this 
means,  and  was  intended  to  mean,  a  public  meeting,  at  which  every 
such  Protestant  might  have  attended.  But  was  there  any  such 
meeting  ?  There  certainly  was  not.  Every  body  knows  there  was 
not.     It  is  a  falsehood — false  as  God  is  true — a  falsehood  signed 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  259 

with  the  classic  name  of  Abraham  Bradley  King,  Lord  Mayor,  but 
not  the  less  unfounded.  The  noble,  grand  Lord  Mayor  just  cei-tifies 
an  untruth.  He  might,  and  probably  had  a  parlour  or  dining  room 
meeting,  but  it  was  no  more  what  he  says — a  meeting  of  the 
Protestants  of  Dublin,  than  it  was  a  meeting  of  the  Jews  of  Frank- 
fort. This  untruth,  however,  is  of  advantage  to  our  enemies. 
Why  ?  Because  we  have  left  it  uncontradicted — because  we  have 
been  so  busy  in  quarrelling  with  one  another  about  Mr.  Lawless's 
abstract  censures,  that  we  have  not  had  leisure  to  mark  with  our  public 
contempt  the  scandalous  and  impudent  falsehoods  with  which  we 
are  assailed. 

"  But  let  us  return  to  our  own  affairs.  Let  us  return  to  the 
consideration  of  the  state  of  the  Catholics'  rights.  Let  us  make 
peace  amongst  ourselves  and  carry  on  the  war  of  words  only  with 
our  enemies.  All  our  vigilance,  all  our  zeal,  all  our  activity,  are 
necessary  for  our  protection.  We  cannot  afford  to  squander  or 
exhaust  any  part  of  them  in  a  quarrel  amongst  ourselves.  You  have 
passed  your  vote  of  censure — be  content  with  in — allow  us  merely  to 
qualify  it,  by  excluding  the  possibility  of  any  person  being  deemed 
to  come  within  it,  who  ought  not  to  do  so.  Those  are  persons  whose 
faith  was  pledged  previous  to  your  resolutions  of  last  spring  and 
summer.  You  admit  that  such  persons  are  not  the  object  of  your 
censure.  All  we  require  is,  that  you  should  declare  the  fact  to  be 
so.  If  your  sword  afterwards  be  wielded  by  private  malignity  out  of 
this  board,  the  declaration  we  require  will  serve  for  a  shield, 
co-extensive  with  your  censure,  to  those  who  are  entitled  to  wear 
that  protection. 

"  I  can  assure  you,  that  my  esteemed  friend  (Mr.  Lalor)  desires  no 
other,  nor  would  any  man  be  his  friend  who  sought  anything 
further.  All  he  desires  is  for  the  honour  of  the  board  itself,  that  it 
should  not  be  said  that  you  censured  him  for  observing  the  promise 
in  which  he  had  pledged  the  honour  of  an  Irish  gentleman.  By  this 
means  you  will  vindicate  the  board  from  a  calumny,  not  less  actively 
circulated  for  being  unfounded,  and  you  will  restore  that  harmony 
and  good  temper  amongst  us,  which  are  so  necessary  for  our 
preservation  at  this  perilous  junction.  I  do,  therefore,  conjure, 
gentlemen,  in  the  name  of  that  afflicted  country,  which  has  so  many 
ardent  and  affectionate  votaries  in  this  room,  to  waive  all  matters  of 
form,  and  let  us  now,  at  once,  adopt  a  resolution  of  admitted  truth 
and  necessary  conciliation.  Let  us  think  that  poor  Ireland,  goaded 
and  distressed,  wants  all  our  attention.     Let  us  sacrifice  every  angiy 


260  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

feeling — turn  from  the  past  with  the  temper  of  forgiving  kindness, 
and  to  the  future  with  all  the  firmness  which  will  result  alone  from 
unanimity  in  our  own  body  ;  continue  divided  and  our  cause  is  lost 
for  ever." 

This  speech  is  reported  to  have  made  a  powerful  impression. 

The  result,  after  some  explanatory  speeches  from  persons 
who  had  supported  the  vote  of  censure,  was  the  unanimous  car- 
rying of  Dr.  Dromgoole's  resolution. 

The  aggregate  meeting,  of  which  Mr.  O'Connell  had  given 
notice,  was  definitively  fixed  for  Tuesday,  the  15th  December, 
on  which  day  it  accordingly  took  place  in  Fishamble-street 
theatre. 

The  first  six  resolutions  here  passed  bore  reference  to  the 
preparation  and  presentation  of  the  Catholic  petition  to  both 
houses  early  in  the  next  session ;  and  also  to  the  preparation  of 
an  address  to  Mr.  Hely  Hutchinson,  expressive  of  Catholic 
feeling  towards  him. 

The  seventh,  eighth,  ninth,  tenth,  and  eleventh  referred,  in 
indignant  terms  and  with  strongly  worded  contradictions,  to 
allegations  in  recent  addresses  of  grand  juries  (city  of  Dublin, 
&c.)  charging  the  Catholics  "  with  disaffection — with  entertain- 
ing disguised  and  secret  views,  and  with  an  intention  to  obtain  a 
Catholic  ascendency." 

Then  followed  thanks  to  Sheriff  Harty,  for  his  conduct  in  his 
office ;  and,  as  usual,  to  the  Protestants  who  had  attended,  in 
particular  to  Counsellors  Finlay  and  Walsh,  for  their  speeches. 

On  the  resolution  respecting  Mr.  Hutchinson  being  put  from 
the  chair,  there  was,  as  the  newspapers  inform  us,  "a  loud  and 
general  call  for  Mr.  O'Connell,  and  when  he  came  forward  he 
was  greeted  for  several  minutes  with  the  most  enthusiastic 
plaudits." 

Mr.  O'Connell  commenced  with  a  very  warm  eulogium  on 
Mr.  Hutchinson,  and  dwelt  at  some  length  upon  the  loss  of  his 
election.  We  take  up  the  report  of  his  speech,  where  he  com- 
menced to  deal  with  the  recent  exhibitions  of  their  enemies. 

"  The  meetings  in  some  of  the  counties  where  resolutions,  hostile 
to   us,  have   been    passed,    cannot    properly   be   called   Protestant 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  261 

meetings.  I  say  properly^  because,  although  the  parties  who  were 
there  prominent  assumed  the  denomination  of  Protestants,  they 
were,  in  reality,  of  no  religion  at  all,  except,  indeed,  in  so  far  as 
might  give  the  means  of  caiTying  on  a  base  traffic,  and  turning  the 
profession  of  it  into  money.  I  shall  not  think  it  necessary  to  name 
the  people  to  whom  I  allude,  for  I  am  quite  sure  you  will  agree  with 
me  that  their  names  are  of  no  very  high  importance.  If  one  instance 
might  be  given,  and  one  as  insignificant  as  need  be,  there  was  John, 
Earl  of  Aldborough.  (Hear  and  laughter.)  His  lordship  was  very 
active  in  defence  of  the  church,  and  he  was  by  no  means  to  be 
blamed ;  on  the  contrary,  he  deserved  the  greatest  commendations  for 
having  come  forward  so  boldly,  and  offered  himself  as  a  martyr  for 
the  good  of  the  church !  Such  men  honoured  the  cause  they  sup- 
ported (Laughter),  and  the  cause,  in  its  turn,  honoured  them  just  as 
much. 

"  In  Dublin,  the  sixteen  grand  jurymen  who  had  signed  the 
resolutions  against  the  Catholics  might  have  been  bought  (he  was 
going  to  say  might,  perhaps,  be  sold)  by  those  worthier  seven  who 
have  refused  their  signatures.  But  he  was  not  going  to  waste  time 
with  the  men,  it  was  with  their  resolutions  and  petitions  that  he  had 
more  properly  to  do,  although,  in  truth,  it  was  little  better  than  a 
waste  of  time  to  deal  even  with  them.     (Hear,  hear.) 

"  These  resolutions  and  petitions  displayed  a  glorious  continuance 
of  the  system  under  which  the  ministry,  which  had  fostered  their 
rankness,  had  begun  its  career — the  same  barefaced  and  impudent 
falsehood — the  same  meanness  and  cunning.  To  that  system  the 
majority  of  one,  which  they  had  obtained  last  session  in  the  House  of 
Lords,  was  solely  attributable.  (Hear,  hear.)  They  LuJ,  in  their 
official  paper,  in  the  Moniteur  of  the  Ministry,  published  a  falsehood — 
a  foul  and  calumnious  falsehood — imputing  to  the  Catholics  a 
conduct  disgraceful  and  mean  as  their  own  ;  and  by  this  had  they 
operated  upon  the  unsuspecting  minds  who  would  otherwise  have 
voted  with  what  turned  out  to  be  the  minority.  To  the  same  base 
system  recourse  was  had  now.  The  London  Courier,  the  same 
paper  I  have  alluded  to,  has,  in  its  last  number,  a  paragraph,  stating 
that  the  '  Third  Part  of  the  Statement  of  the  Penal  Laws,  aggrieving 
the  Catholics  of  Ireland,'  had  been  received  in  London  ;  and  that  it 
contained  a  full  and  faithful  account  of  the  views  of  the  Catholic 
body.  They  already  knew  that  this  was  a  pure  and  mischievous 
falsehood ;  the  so-called  '  Third  Part  of  the  Statement,  &c.,'  was  a 
production  of  some  of  the  hired  writers  at  the  Castle,  and  was  only 


262  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

to  be  found  in  the  sliop  of  Jack  GifFtird,  or  some  of  his  compeers  in 
^corruption  and  bigotry. 

"  But  to  return  to  the  resolutions  of  the  meetings.  They  had 
brought  forward  various  accusations  against  the  Catholics,  and  to  one 
of  them  I,  for  one,  am  perfectly  ready  to  plead  guilty.  They  have 
said  that  what  we  once  asked  as  a  boon  and  as  a  favoui-,  we  now 
demand  as  a  right ;  and  they  say  well.  We  do  so.  (Hear,  hear.) 
I  would  take  Emancipation  in  whatever  shape  it  came ;  if  it  was  even 
held  out  as  are  the  alms  of  a  beggar,  I  should  accept  it.  But  should 
I  for  that  the  less  consider  it  as  a  right  which  was  my  due,  and  which 
ought  to  have  been  obtained  by  insisting  on  it  as  such  ?  Cei'tainly 
not.  I  am  glad  from  my  soul  that  they  admit  this — that  they  allow 
we  consider  it  as  a  right.  For  when  they  allow  that  we  demand  it 
as  a  right  for  ourselves,  do  they  not  likewise  allow  that  we  grant  it  as 
a  right  to  others  ?  and  they  themselves  do  away  with  the  foul  calumny, 
that  our  religion  leads  us  to  believe  that  no  one  should  have  equal 
right  with  professors  of  it.  If  religious  liberty  is  right  to  one,  it  is  a 
right  to  all.  When  we,  therefore,  say  it  is  a  right  to  us,  we  allow 
that  the  same  right  belongs  to  the  Quaker,  the  Presbyterian,  the 
Dissenter.  We  do  not  ask  it  as  relying  on  our  numbers,  our 
strength,  or  the  wealth  of  our  body ;  we  come  forward  on  the  broad 
principles,  that  political  equality  is  the  right  of  men  of  all  religions ; 
and  this  our  enemies  allow  ;  let  tliem  not,  therefore,  shrink  from  the 
consequence. 

*'  But  if  they  have  said  the  truth  in  this  instance,  they  have  amply 
compensated  it  in  others  by  the  most  unblushing  falsehoods.  They 
have  thrown  out  imputations  in  their  resolutions  which,  I  am  sure,  they 
themselves  are  conscious  of  being  grossly  calumnious,  and  which  they 
would  not  dare,  even  in  terms  the  most  distant,  to  insinuate  in  private 
life  to  any  Catholic  gentleman  in  Ireland. 

"  They  have  said  that  the  Catholics  are  disaffected.  Yet  how 
often  have  these  Catholics  sealed  their  loyalty  with  their  blood  !  If 
the  Prince  Regent  has  forget  Ireland  in  his  speech,  his  enemies  might 
remind  him  of  her  by  the  respect  which  they  pay  him  in  consequence 
of  the  resources  he  derives  from  her.  Did  not  Vimiera — did  not 
Talavera  and  Badajoz  give  proofs  of  the  loyalty  of  the  Catholics  ?  at 
Salamanca,  was  it  not  felt  in  the  terrors  of  rout  and  defeat  by  every 
flying  Frenchman  ?  It  has  been  amply  proved.  And  if  Britain 
would  know  the  benefit  she  derives  from  the  proof  of  it,  she  may 
have  an  idea  from  but  one  solitary  instance.  Before  the  late  removal 
of  part  of  the  Penal  Laws,  I  myself  had  no  less  than  forty  relations 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  263 

in  the  military  service  of  France,  from  an  inspector-general  of  in- 
fantry down  to  a  lieutenant ;  I  have  now  none  ;  but  in  every  victory 
which  graces  the  military  annalsof  the  British  empire,  I  have  to  tremble 
in  perusing  the  G  azette,  lest  I  meet  among  the  lists  of  the  honourable 
dead,  the  name  of  some  dear  and  respected  relative.  Sixteen  are  at  this 
moment  serving  in  the  Peninsula.  If  such  be  the  case  only  in 
one  instance,  and  resulting  only  from  the  removal  of  a  part  of 
those  laws,  what  might  not  be  expected  to  the  interests  of 
Britain,  were  the  same  benefit  extended  to  all,  and  the  hopes  of 
our  youth  allowed,  in  every  instance,  to  be  bound  only  by  their 
merits  ? 

"  They  accuse  us  of  a  wish  for  Catholic  ascendency.  Their 
inconsistency  in  the  accusation  is  glaring  and  ridiculous.  They 
first  blame  us  for  asking  Emancipation  as  a  right ;  and  they 
then  say  that  we  are  desirous  of  a  Catholic  ascendency.  Does  not 
the  demanding  Emancipation  as  a  right  imply  that  an  equality  of 
privileges  is  the  right  of  every  citizen,  be  his  religion  what  it  may  ? 
And  does  not  the  wish  for  a  Catholic  ascendency  imply,  that  we 
think  no  man  ought  to  be  on  an  equal  footing  with  the  Catholic  ? 
The  absurdity  is  manifest :  they  accuse  us  of  saying  that  an  equality 
of  civil  privileges  is  the  right  of  every  citizen,  of  whatever  persua- 
sion ;  then  they  accuse  us  of  saying,  that  there  should  be  no 
such  thing  as  an  equality  of  privileges  ;  and  they  condemn  us  for 
both. 

"But  their  absurdities  shall  not  be  the  ground  on  which  we 
shall  defend  ourselves.  The  accusation  is  contrary  to  our  feelings — 
to  our  opinions  ;  we  have  already  expressed  our  disapprobation  of  any 
connexion  subsisting  between  government  and  the  Catholic  prelates ; 
and  I  am  free  to  say,  that  there  is  no  event  which  I  siiould  consider 
more  fatal  to  the  liberties  of  Ireland  than  what  they  have  called  a 
Catholic  ascendency.  Our  prelates  would  no  longer  be  the  respectable 
characters  in  which  we  now  revere  everything  that  is  virtuous  or 
respectable  ;  they  would,  at  least,  have  more  temptations  to  become 
otherwise  ;  and  whenever  they  should  degenerate  into  the  tool  of  the 
minister,  then  should  I  consider  the  doom  of  Ireland  as  sealed  for 
ever. 

"  There  is,  I  am  sure,  no  man  of  education  who  hears  me,  that 
does  not  join  in  the  opinion  that  I  have  oifered ;  and  there  is  none 
who,  even  in  the  warmest  moments  of  enthusiasm  for  the  prosperity 
of  those  professing  the  same  religion  with  himself,  that  can  be 
charged  with  having  ever  uttered  a  word  inconsistent  with  it.     I  do 


264  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

not  refer  our  enemies  to  the  resolutions  of  our  meetings ;  but  let 
them  go  to  the  most  incautious  speech  that  ever  was  delivered  at  any 
of  them — let  them  scrape  together  words  uttered  in  the  heat  of 
debate,  even  then  I  defy  them  to  find  a  sentence  that  will  bear  them 
out  in  their  accusations.  It  is  not  necessary  for  them,  after  being- 
foiled  in  the  search,  to  betake  themselves  to  conjecture,  and  to  build 
a  conclusion,  on  their  own  suppositions,  of  our  wishes ;  for  well  they 
know,  that  we  have  too  much  of  Irishmen  about  us  to  conceal  them, 
did  we  entertain  them. 

"  So  far,  indeed,  from  Avishing  for  ascendency,  we  do  not  desire 
that  we  shall  be  necessarily  taken  into  any  office  or  political  employ- 
ment whatever  ;  all  that  we  insist  upon  is,  an  enlargement  of  the 
prerogative  of  the  crown,  by  which  his  Majesty  may  be  allowed  a 
wider  range  in  search  for  virtue,  talent,  and  respectability,  among 
his  subjects,  in  selecting  the  offices  necessary  in  his  government. 

"  There  is  another  circumstance  of  much  importance,  which  I 
think  it  necessary  to  call  your  attention  to.  Every  body  recollects 
that  the  last  parliament  was  pledged — solemnly  pledged  to  the 
serious  and  immediate  consideration  of  our  claims.  The  present 
parliament  is  completely  bound  by  the  promise  of  the  former ;  it  is 
still  the  imperial  parliament,  though  a  few,  and  very  few,  indeed,  of 
the  persons  composing  it  have  been  changed  ;  I  should  hope  it  will 
recollect  this  ;  it  would  be  a  most  truly  gross  and  miserable  chicanery 
if  it  were  to  attempt  a  recantation,  knowing,  as  we  do,  that  not  even 
the  whole  of  the  new  members  amount  to  near  the  majority,  which 
had  the  wisdom  to  decide  on  giving  us  a  hearing.  There  is  a  solemn 
and  deliberate  treaty — a  direct  and  unequivocal  pledge ;  it  is  true, 
we  have  known  treaties  violated  ;  and  it  is,  unfortunately,  full  as 
well  attested,  and  that  to  our  own  knowledge,  tliat  pledges  have  been 
left  unredeemed.  Let  them  recollect  the  terrible  confusion  that 
ensued  when  a  former  pledge  was  revoked.  I  shall  quote  an  autho- 
rity for  them,  and  one  which  they  will  be  likely  to  respect,  that  of 
Sir  Lawrence  Parsons,  now  Lord  Koss,  as  to  the  probable  conse- 
quences which  he  thought  were  likely  to  result  from  retracting  that 
pledge — consequences  far  more  dreadful  than  I  shall  either  look  for 
or  suppose. 

"  When  Lord  Fitzwilliam  came  over  to  this  country  as  chief 
governor,  he  gave  a  pledge  for  the  repeal  of  the  penal  laws,  when  by 
one  of  those  changes,  not  unfrequent  in  the  Pitt  administration,  the 
pledge  was  left  unredeemed,  and  that  patriotic  earl  was  recalled. 
When  the  subject,  hosvever,  came  before  the  House  of  Commons,  Sir 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  265 

Lawrence  Parsons  delivered  his  sentiments,  and  we  have  those 
remarkable  expressions  in  the  report  of  his  speech.  It  is  impossible 
to  assert,  that  it  gives  precisely  his  words,  but  if  any  report  be  correct, 
I  should  suppose  this  to  be,  for  it  seems  to  bear  great  marks  of  care 
and  attention.  The  report  states,  that  Sir  Lawrence  Parsons  said  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  '  if  a  resistance  to  any  thing  would  be  pro- 
ductive of  evil  consequences,  it  was  that  against  the  wishes  of  the 
people,  and  the  prospects  which  have  been  held  out  to  them  ;  that  if 
the  demom  of  darkness  should  come  from  the  infernal  regions  upon 
earth,  and  throw  a  fire-brand  among  the  people,  he  could  not 
do  more  to  promote  mischief.'  I  hope  some  one  will  remind  him  of 
this  part  of  his  speech  at  the  King's  County  meeting,  which  I  hear 
he  is  to  attend  to-morrow.  He  continues,  '  he  had  never  heard  of  a 
parallel  to  the  infatuation  of  the  minister  ;'  he  may  see  one  now  ; 
'  and  if  he  persisted,  every  man  must  have  five  or  six  dragoons  in  his 
house.' 

"  And  it  was  true ;  for  in  many  houses  it  was  necessary  for  the 
owners  to  have  five  or  six  dragoons,  and  the  whole  country  was 
thrown  into  confusion.  I  hope  and  trust  that  no  such  consequence 
will  ever  again  occur,  though  sure  I  am  that  such  is  the  desire  of  the 
British  minister.  He  wishes  (to  make  use  of  the  words  of  Christopher 
Hely  Hutchinson)  that  you  should  draw  the  sword,  to  afford  him  an 
opportunity  of  throwing  away  the  scabbard.  Certain  he  was,  that  at 
this  very  moment,  there  was  a  foul  conspiracy  to  draw  the  warm- 
hearted, but  unthinking  people  of  Ireland  into  a  sham  plot,  to  give  an 
opportunity  of  wreaking  vengeance  on  her  dearest  sons. 

"  Here  he  must  warn  his  countrymen  to  abstain  and  shun,  with 
the  greatest  caution,  every  inducement  which  might  be  held  out  to 
them  for  disturbances  similar  to  these  he  had  alluded  to.  Nothing 
would  more  thwart  the  progress  of  their  cause  ;  nothing,  he  suspected, 
could,  for  that  reason,  be  more  satisfactory  to  the  ministry,  than  just 
so  much  of  it  as  would  give  a  pretence  for  a  suspension  of  the  Habeas 
Corpus  act,  and  some  other  violences  of  the  same  description,  toge- 
ther with  a  total  refusal  of  the  claims  of  the  Catholics.  Ireland  had 
ah'eady  been  taught  to  beware ;  her  lesson  had  been  stamped  in 
letters  of  the  best  blood  of  her  children,  and  assuredly  now  she  would 
avoid  the  snare  which  was  intended  for  her. 

"  That  such  was  the  wish  of  certain  persons  in  power,  he  could  not 
doubt.  Keegan's  plot  was  not  yet  to  be  forgotten  ;  occurrences  of  the 
same  kind  had  been  discovered  in  Kilkenny  and  Limerick.  "What, 
too,  was  the  reason  that  the  garrison  of  Dublin  was  under  orders  to 


266  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

be  in  immediate  readiness  to  march  ?  Why  were  the  matches  kept 
lighted  ?  Why  preparations  made  for  attack  or  defence  ?  Was  it 
not  to  inspire  credulous  people  with  the  idea  that  there  was  danger  of 
an  insurrection  ;  and  to  induce  others,  who  thought  their  wrongs 
almost  called  for  it,  to  believe  that  they  might  soon  hope  to  be  joined 
by  others,  as  inj  ured  and  more  determined  than  themselves :  keeping 
alive,  on  the  one  side,  the  fire  of  hatred,  and  on  the  other,  the  desire 
and  hope  of  revenge. 

"  But  the  people  of  Ireland  have  too  much  good  sense  to  be  misled 
by  such  phantoms,  by  such  paltry  contrivances.  They  see  that  a 
pretext  is  only  wanting  to  crush  them  and  their  claims  for  ever,  and 
cancel  the  bond  in  the  best  blood  of  their  country ;  and  they  despise 
the  nefarious  attempts  that  are  made  upon  them.  They  feel,  too,  that 
their  cause  is  advancing  ;  nothing  can  prevent  its  progress.  Ireland, 
in  the  meantime,  is  tranquil,  and  awaits  the  result  with  confidence 
and  hope. 

"  The  Prince  Regent,  in  his  speech  from  the  throne,  alluded  to  the 
disturbances  in  England.  What  a  pity  that  he  had  not  a  Professor 
Von  Feinaigle  to  recall  to  his  recollection,  that  he  had  five  millions 
of  peaceable  subjects  in  Ireland,  who  bore  their  oppressions  with  for- 
titude, and  who  could  not  be  goaded  into  disloyalty,  even  l)y  the  foul 
and  false  calumnies  which  were  heaped  upon  them.  No  ;  they  had 
proved,  and  they  would  continue  to  prove,  that  the  depraved  and  con- 
temptible fabricators  of  those  tales  had  mistaken  their  aim,  and  that 
they  could  no  longer  practise  upon  the  credulity  of  their  intended 
victims.  How  much  it  is  to  be  lamented,  that  his  Royal  Highness 
had  not  some  person  to  remind  him  of  Ireland  ;  and  to  point  out  the 
contrast  which  so  strikingly  exists  between  the  quiet  and  profound 
peace  which  reigns  in  it,  and  that  tumult  in  the  other  island  which 
he  thought  it  proper  to  notice  in  his  speech. 

"  I  shall  now  conclude,  intreating  your  pardon  for  having  trespassed 
so  long  upon  your  time,  and  returning  you  my  grateful  thanks  for  the 
many  marks  of  your  favour  which  you  have  been  pleased  to  confer 
upon  me;  and  particularly  for  the  attention  and  kindness  with  which 
you  have  heard  me  this  day.  I  also  express  my  most  entire  concur- 
rence on  the  resolutions  which  you  are  about  to  adopt.  (The  whole 
of  this  speech  was  received  with  the  most  marked  applause.  Mr. 
O'Connell  was  frequently  interrupted  by  the  cheering,  and  the  accla- 
mations continued  long  after  he  had  ceased.)" 

Early  in   1813,    the   Catholic   Board    set  about   taking    the 


DANIEL    o'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  267 

necessary  steps  for  pushing,  with  vigour,  the  agitation  of  their 
cause  during  the  approaching  session.  At  their  first  meeting 
for  the  year  (upon  the  16th  January),  the  question  of  appointing 
delegates,  to  accompany  Lord  Fingal  to  London,  was  brought 
forward,  and  Mr.  O'Connell  urged  their  immediate  appointment, 
as  "the  events  of  even  one  week  might  be  very  important." 
Mr.  Lawless,  however,  opposed  any  immediate  step,  and  suc- 
ceeded in  postponing  it  for  two  meetings ;  when,  on  the  29th 
January,  the  following  were  selected  (by  ballot)  to  accompany 
his  lordship  : — 

Randal  M'Donnell,  Esq.,  Owen  O'Connor,  Esq.  (O'Connor 
Don),  Sir  Francis  Goold,  Baronet,  J.  J.  Burke,  Esq.,  of 
Glinsk,  Peter  Bodkin  Hussey,  Esq. 

At  one  of  these  meetings  Mr.  O'Connell  drew  attention  to 
the  following  matter.     He  stated — 

"  That  such  was  the  deplorable  state  of  ignorance  in  which  the 
people  of  England  were  kept  with  respect  to  the  real  circumstances 
connected  with  the  Catholic  cause,  that  a  petition  had  been  resolved 
upon,  by  the  Dean  and  Chapter  of  Worcester,  against  the  Catholic 
claims  upon  the  sole  ground  of  that  ridiculous  fabrication,  entitled 
'  the  Third  Part  of  the  Statement  of  the  Penal  Laws,'  which  had 
been  the  joint  production  of  one  of  the  young  men  at  the  Patriot 
newspaper  office,  and  of  another  Castle  salaried  scribe,  who  was  well 
known,  and  which  was  so  gross  a  fabrication,  that  it  was  astonishing 
it  could  impose  on  any  men. 

'*  Still,  however,  with  the  assistance  of  that  part  of  the  English 
press  which  was  paid  for  deceiving  the  people,  and  so  paid,  let  it 
be  remembered,  with  their  own  money,  the  cheat  had  passed  very 
generally.  He  thought  it  highly  expedient  that  some  means 
should  be  adopted  to  show  the  people  of  England  how  they  were 
deluded." 

Michael  Fitzsimon,  Esq.,  immediately  gave  notice  of  a  motion 
for  "  a  formal  disclaimer  to  be  made  by  the  board,  of  the  work 
in  question." 

A  letter  was  received  from  Mr.  Jermingham,  one  of  the 
secretaries  to  the  English  Catholics 

"  touching   the   general  question   of 

Emancipation.      This  letter  seemed  to  intimate  some  intention 


268  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

on  the  part  of  the  English  Catholics,  to  accept  of  terms  of  a 
qualified  nature  from  ministers,  and  to  put  forth  a  suggestion  that 
it  would  be  for  the  advantage  of  the  general  cause  to  suffer  the 
English  Catholic  petition  to  be  discussed  before  the  Irish. 

"  Upon  both  features  of  the  letter  much  interesting  discussion 
took  place,  and  the  result  was  the  adoption  of  the  following 
resolution,  which  we  think  (continues  the  journal  that  gives  the 
account — the  Freeman)  a  most  appropriate  answer  to  our 
Catholic  brethren  at  the  other  side  of  the  water. 

"  '  Resolved That  on  reading  Mr.  Jermingham's  letter  to  Mr.  Hay,  we  do 

unanimously  agree,  that  Mr.  Hay  be  directed  to  write  to  Mr.  Jermingham,  in 
the  most  respectful  manner,  intimating  that  we  have  no  communication, 
whatever,  to  make  upon  the  subject  of  that  letter.' 

"  This  resolution,  we  believe,  sufficiently  shows  that  there  is 
no  identity  of  interest,  or  at  least  views,  between  the  English 
and  the  Irish  Catholics  ;  and  that  the  latter  shall  never  consider 
themselves  bound  by  the  terms  of  any  pusillanimous  capitulation 
which  the  former  may  take  upon  themselves  to  make." 

The  long  pending  case  in  the  Common  Pleas,  Taaffe  v. 
Chief  Justice  Downes,  was,  early  in  February,  1813,  decided 
against  the  Catholics,  by  the  majority  of  Lord  Norbury,  Justices 
Johnson  and  Fox,  to  Mr.  Justice  Fletcher,  who  delivered  an 
admirable  judgment  for  the  plaintiff. 

Another  matter  of  great  interest  came  before  the  Courts  in 
the  month  in  question — the  trial  of  Mr.  Hugh  Fitzpatrick, 
printer  and  publisher  of  Mr.  Scully's  "  Statement  of  the  Penal 
Laws,"  for  a  libel  alleged  to  be  contained  in  a  note  to  that  work. 

The  libel,  as  alleged,  was  in  imputing  to  the  government  the 
fact  of  having  caused  a  sentence  of  death  to  be  carried  into 
execution  upon  a  Catholic  farmer,  of  the  county  Waterford, 
named  Barry,  in  the  year  1809,  notwithstanding  that  his 
innocence  had  come  out  in  the  interval  after  his  conviction. 

During  the  course  of  his  opening  speech,  the  Attorney- 
General,  Saurin,  remarked  that  there  were  evident  indications 
that  the  "  Statement  of  the  Penal  Laws"  came  from  a  legal 
hand ;  and  that  its  anonymous  author,  though  safe  from  punish- 
ment, ought  not  to  be  so,  from  remorse  for  his  criminality. 

Mr.  Scully  rose,  in  open  court,  and  challenged  the  Attorney- 
General  to  a  fair  and  impartial  trial  of  the  facts  in  the  allega- 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,  M.P.  2G9 

tions  alluded  to,  and  declared  he  would,  if  the  challenge  were 
accepted,  at  once  reveal  the  author's  name. 

The  Attorney- General  said  he  "  stood  there  to  prosecute  a 
libeller,  and  not  to  defend  the  government." 

"  Then  (said  Mr.  Scully)  you  evade  the  offer,  and  decline 
this  public  challenge  in  open  court  ?" 

No  answer  was  attempted,  and  the  case  went  on. 

During  its  progress,  Mr.  Burrowes  Campbell,  who  had  been 
counsel  for  the  unfortunate  Barry,  was  examined  by  Mr. 
O'Connell — reference  being  made  to  an  affidavit  of  the  accused, 
stating  the  insufficiency  of  notice  given  him  of  his  trial,  and  the 
absence  of  material  witnesses. 

Mr.  O'Connell  asked  the  witness — 


"  You  grounded  your  application  to  postpone  the  trial  of  the  un- 
fortunate Bany  on  the  affidavit  ? 

"  My  first  application  was  made  on  the  first  day  of  the  assizes ;  not 
on  that  affidavit,  but  on  the  grounds  of  which  the  judge  had  judicial 
cognizance — namely,  tlie  short  time  that  the  prisoner  was  in  the  county 
(Kilkenny)  having  been  transmitted,  to  take  his  trial,  from  the  last 
assize  town,  and  the  impracticability  of  procuring  his  witnesses  on 
such  short  notice.  The  learned  judge  said  he  would  not  grant  the 
motion ;  the  trial  must  go  on. 

"  Was  there  any  opposition  made  by  the  persons  conducting  the 
prosecution  to  the  postponement  you  required  ? 

"  None  whatever.  Lord  Norbury  asked,  was  there  sufficient  busi- 
ness to  employ  the  court  that  day,  exclusive  of  Barry's  case  ;  and  on 
being  informed  that  there  was,  he  consented  to  postpone  the  case 
to  the  morroiv  only  !  I  then  drew  Barry's  affidavit,  and  moved 
upon  it. 

"  Did  any  magistrate  of  the  name  of  Elliott  interfere  ? 

"  Yes ;  he  was  sitting  in  the  bar-box  when  one  of  the  bar  men- 
tioned to  me  that  he  (Mr.  Elliott)  knew  three  of  the  parties  mentioned 
in  the  affidavit.  I  asked  Mr.  Elliott,  in  open  court,  if  these  parties 
resided  at  the  distance  stated,  and  he  said  they  did.  I  therefore 
moved  a  postponement  to  enable  *my  client  to  procure  their  atten- 
dance ;  but  the  Judge  thought  proper  to  refuse  the  motion. 

"  What  passed  afterwards  ? 

"  Some  things  which  I  do  not  wish  to  repeat ;  and  therefore  request 
you  will  not  ask  me,  if  not  material  to  do  so. 


270  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

"  However  unpleasant,  sir,  it  may  be  to  you  to  answer,  or  me  to 
ask,  my  duty  compels  me  to  request  an  answer. 

"  I  told  the  Judge  that  I  would  not  go  through  the  mockery  of  a 
trial,  when  I  knew  the  man  had  not  his  Avitnesses  ;  and  that  if  the 
trial  were  called  on,  his  lordship  should  defend  the  man  himself. 
I  accordingly  threw  up  my  brief,  and  left  the  court. 

"  Anything  more  ? 

"  Yes.  I  received  an  authoritative  mandate  to  attend  the  trial, 
which,  however,  I  contemptuously  rejected. 

"  From  whom  did  you  receive  it  ? 

"  From  the  Judge. 

"  On  what  grounds  did  the  Judge  refuse  the  application  by 
affidavit  ? 

*'  He  said  he  had  had  communication  with  the  magistrates,  and  that 
if  a  trial  was  to  be  postponed  upon  an  affidavit,  so  comflete  and  profes- 
sionally drawn  as  that  I  offered,  the  business  could  not  be  proceeded 
with,  as  prisoners  would  only  have  to  employ  counsel  to  draw  an 
affidavit  when  they  wished  to  put  off  their  trials.  /  asked  his  lord- 
ship what  he  would  have  said  if  the  affidavit  had  been  defective  ? 

"  Did  you,  after  the  conviction  of  this  unfortunate  man,  make  any 
application  on  his  behalf  to  the  Judge  who  tried  him,  in  order  to 
obtain  mercy  ? 

"  After  the  conviction,  I  wrote  a  respectful  letter  to  Lord  Norbury, 
enclosing  the  voluntary  affidavits  of  those  persons  who  were  to  have 
been  Barry's  witnesses,  in  which  they  swore  that  he  icas  in  their 
company  at  a  distance  of  forty-Jive  miles  when  the  robbery  rvas  com- 
mitted !  To  this  I  never  received  any  answer,  except  a  verbal  one, 
which  I  cannot  take  upon  me  to  say  had  been  sent  by  his  lordship. 
I  then  applied  to  the  Attorney- General. 

"  Did  you  mention  the  circumstance  to  any  person  ? 

"  I  did.  I  talked  publicly  of  it  in  the  hall  of  the  Four  Courts,  and 
told  it  to  every  body  I  met. 

"  In  speaking  of  it,  did  you  represent  it  as  an  ordinary  occurrence, 
or  otherwise  ? 

"  [Here  the  witness  shook  his  head.] 

"  Judge  Day  observed,  that  the  shake  of  the  head  was  a  Sufficient 
intimation  of  his  sentiments. 

"  Mr.  Campbell  answered — I  looked  upon  it  as  otherwise ;  and 
thought  the  Judge's  conduct  in  refusing  to  postpone  the  trial  as  con- 
trary to  law." 

Mr.    O'Connell  having   concluded    the    direct   examiuation, 


DANIEL    O  CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  271 

the  witness  was  cross-examined  by  the  SoHcitor- General,  but 
nothins:  new  was  elicited,  save  as  follows  : — 


"  Did  you  ever  repi'esent  that  pardon  was  refused  to  this  convict 
because  he  was  a  Roman  Catholic  ? 

"  Never.  Though  I  sincerely  love  the  Roman  Catholics,  and  hope 
for  their  emancipation,  yet  I  don't  know  that  they  are  so  hadly  treated 
as  that. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  (proceeding  to  re-examine  the  witness). — Not  so 
bad  ? — No,  they  are  not  all  hanged  !  You  have  been-  asked  whether 
you  made  the  application  to  the  Judge  and  to  the  Attorney-General 
on  the  same  grounds  as  those  stated  in  the  former  affidavit.  Were 
there  any  other  grounds  ? 

*'  I  made  it  on  the  grounds  of  two  affidavits— the  one  made  by 
James  Rodgers  and  three  other  persons  named  in  the  affidavit,  sworn 
to  postpone  the  trial,  stating  that  on  the  day  charged  in  the  indict- 
ment, the  convict,  Patrick  Barry,  was  in  their  company  at  Kilcannon, 
at  the  distance  of  forty  or  fifty  miles  from  the  place  where  the 
alleged  robbery  was  committed,  and  that  they  had  never  heard  of 
his  being  accused  of  the  robbery  till  after  his  trial.  I  sent  the  affi- 
davits, with  the  memorial,  to  Mr.  Saurin  (Attorney- General).  I  never 
imputed  any  censure  to  the  Duke  of  Richmond,  but  to  another  and 
a  different  person.  I  mentioned  the  circumstance  to  every  gentleman 
of  the  bar  with  whom  I  was  acquainted. 

"  Mr.  Justice  Day. — In  what  manner  did  you  speak  of  it  ? 

"  I  always  spoke  of  it  as  a  most  shocking  event  ! 

"Mr.  O'Connell. — You  had  no  doubt  it  was  a  shocking  circum- 
stance ? 

"  It  was  a  most  shocking  circumstance. 

"  Mr.  Justice  Day. — You  say  there  was  nothing  imputable  to  the 
government  ? 

"  Certainly  not,  that  I  know. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell — Are  you  of  opinion  that  the  conduct  of  the 
Judge  was  a  fit  subject  for  parliamentary  inquiry  ? 

"  I  am ;  and  I  did  at  the  time  think  so,  and  repeatedly  said  so. 

"  Did  you  not,  by  your  letter  to  the  Attorney- General,  offer  to 
attend  him,  and  give  every  further  explanation  concerning  this 
illegal  transaction ;  and  did  the  Attorney-General  ever  send  to  or  call 
upon  you  ? 

"I  did  make  such  an  offer;  and  I  never  heard  further  from  the 
Attorney-  General  !  !  ! 


272  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

"  Pray,  Mr.  Campbell,  was  not  this  melancholy  transaction  a  matter 
of  public  notoriety,  and  in  every  body's  mouth,  long  before  the  publi- 
cation of  the  '  Statement  of  the  Penal  Laws  ?' 

"  Oh,  very  long  ;  I  spoke  of  it  publicly  in  November  term,  1809- 
The  statement  was  not  published,  as  I  believe,  until  May,  1812. 
'     "  [The  witness  then  withdrew.] 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  remarked,  that  the  fact  that  Mr.  Pole  and  Sir 
Charles  Saxton  were  the  secretary  and  the  under-secretary  when  the 
book  was  published  was  admitted;  and  that  in  November,  1812, 
when  the  information  was  filed,  two  other  persons  filled  those 
situations. 

"  The  case  having  closed,  he  applied  to  be  allowed  to  speak  to 
evidence,  as  witnesses  had  been  examined  on  both  sides,  and  cited  a 
case  in  point. 

"  Chief  Justice. — The  practice  is  otherwise  ;  we  therefore  cannot 
break  this  rule,  unless  there  is  matter  of  law  to  be  observed  upon. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell My  lord,  there  is  matter  of  law  in  this  case  as 

well  as  matter  of  fact. 

"  Chief  Justice. — I  do  not  conceive  the  right  exists  here  ;  but  I 
should  have  no  objection  to  hear  you,  if  counsel  for  the  prosecution 
consent. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell My  lord,  I  shall  not  ask  any  indulgence  from 

the  counsel  for  the  crown.  If  I  have  not  a  right  to  observe  on  the 
matter  of  law,  which  in  this  case  is  so  intermixed  and  blended  with 
matter  of  fact,  I  shall  sit  down. 

"  Mr.  Justice  Osborne. — I  conceive  that  with  respect  to  the  matter, 
of  law,  the  Attorney- General  has  something,  indeed,  I  think,  he  has 
a  good  deal,  to  answer. 

"Mr.  O'Connell. — Your  lordship  sees  that  the  alleged  libel  is 
stated  to  be  against  the  Lord  Lieutenant,  and  his  ministers  acting 
under  his  authority ;  and  it  appears,  by  admission,  that  those  ministers 
(as  they  are  ignorantly  styled  by  the  pleader)  were  not  the  persons 
acting  under  the  authority  of  the  Viceroy,  at  the  time  when  this 
information  was  filed.  It  is  predicated  of  Mr.  Peel*  and  Mr. 
Gregory."\ 

With  this  quiet  slippiyig  in,  by  Mr.  O'Connell,  of  the  argu- 
ment he  was  not  permitted  to  make  as  a  speech,  his  part  in  the 
case  ended  at  that  time. 

It  is  well  that  the  circumstance  of  Mr.   O'Connell's  examina- 

*  The  present  Sir  Robert  Peel,  then  secretarj'  for  Ireland. 
I  Father  of  the  member  for  Dublin,  then  under-secretary. 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  273 

tion  of  witnesses  has  enabled  us  the  foregoing  details — showing 
what  species  of  judges  this  unfortunate  country  was  cursed  with 
under  our  English  rulers. 

Mr.  Burro wes,  Mr.  O'Connell's  senior  in  the  case  we  have 
quoted  from,  had  been  heard  after  the  closing  of  his  client's 
case.  The  SoKcitor- General  now  replied;  and  the  Chief 
Justice  having  subsequently  charged  the  Jury,  they  retired  for  a 
short  time,  and  then  returned  with  a  verdict  of  "  Guilty." 

Mr.  Burrowes  objected  to  the  charge  that  had  been  given 
them.  "  The  learned  Judge,"  he  said,  "  ought  not  to  have 
directed  the  finding  of  the  averments." 

In  pursuance  of  his  objection — 

"  Mr.  O'Connell,  on  the  sitting  of  the  court  the  following  day 
(Thursday,  February  11,  1812),  rose  to  make  an  application  to  set 
aside  the  verdict  which  had  been  obtained  in  this  case,  as  originating 
from  the  misdirection  of  the  learned  judges  who  had  charged  the  jury, 
and  as  being  against  law  and  evidence. 

"  The  Attorney- General  just  came  into  court  when  Mr.  O'Connell 
had  proceeded  thus  far,  and  called  on  Mr.  Fitzpatrick  to  appear  in 
person. 

"  Mr.  Fitzpatrick  immediately  came  into  court,  and  the  Attorney- 
General  moved  that  he  should  then  stand  committed. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  observed,  that  such  a  motion  on  the  part  of  the 
Right  Hon.  Attorney-General  Avas  just  what  had  been  expected. 

"  The  court  complied  with  the  Attorney- General's  motion,  and 
ordered  that  Mr.  Fitzpatrick  should  stand  committed. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  then  resumed.  He  said  he  made  his  motion  upon 
the  grounds  alleged  in  the  notice,  which  had  been  served  on  the 
other  side.  The  first  of  which  was  the  misdirection  of  the  learned 
Judge  who  had  charged  the  jury ;  and  the  second  ground  was,  that 
it  should  not  be  permitted  to  stand,  inasmuch  as  it  was  contrary 
to  law,  and  against  evidence. 

"  He  said  that  in  case  this  motion  should  be  refused,  it  was  his 
intention  to  submit  a  further  one  in  arrest  of  judgment,  grounded  on 
the  pleadings  alone ;  but  as  the  two  motions  were  perfectly  distinct, 
and  that  the  second  one  would  not  become  necessary  unless  the  first 
was  refused,  he  should  confine  himself  solely  to  that  which  he  had  for 
its  object— the  setting  aside  the  verdict. 

T 


274  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

'*  Beside  these  two  grounds  which  he  had  mentioned,  there  were  also 
two  others — viz.,  that  the  defendant  had  been  deprived  of  the  benefit 
of  a  second  counsel  being  permitted  to  address  the  jury,  although  he 
had  produced  evidence,  which  Mr.  O'Connell  contended  was  his 
right ;  and  that  the  information  charged  the  defendant  with  having 
libelled  the  Duke  of  Richmond,  and  his  Majesty's  ministers  in 
Ireland,  acting  under  his  authority,  when,  in  fact,  if  any  imputation 
of  the  kind  could  be  attributed  to  the  note  which  formed  what  was 
termed  the  libel  at  all,  it  must  have  been  intended  to  allude  to  those 
who  had  acted,  not  those  who  were  now  acting ;  for  every  person 
knew  that  those  non-descripts,  who  were  entitled  his  Majesty's 
ministers,  had  been  chai'ged  both  between  the  execution  of  Barry, 
and  the  publication  of  the  book  ;  and  again,  between  the  publication 
and  the  filing  of  the  ex-officio  information  by  the  Attorney- 
General. 

"  The  information  had  been  filed  in  Michaelmas  tei"m;  it  contained 
two  counts,  the  second  of  which  was  wholly  out  of  the  question. 
The  word  farmer  had  been  omitted ;  and  in  a  prosecution  of  this 
nature  the  defendant  was  fully  warranted  in  taking  advantage  of 
anything  in  his  favour ;  when  the  point  had  been  made  at  the 
trial,  it  was  not  contested.  The  second  count  was,  therefore,  wholly 
out  of  the  case. 

"  This  information  stated  that  Hugh  Fitzpatrick  being  a  person  of 
a  bad,  malicious,  and  wicked  disposition,  &c.,  and  desu'ing  to  stir  up 
and  create  a  rebellion,  vice,  did,  on  the  19th  of  June  last,  publish 
a  libel,  a  false  and  scandalous  libel,  of  and  concerning  his  Grace  the 
Duke  of  Richmond,  &c.,  and  of  and  concerning  his  Majesty's 
ministers  in  Ireland,  acting  under  the  authority  of  the  said  Lord 
Lieutenant,  &c.  It  then  recites  the  libel  itself,  which  is  of  the 
following  tenor : — 

"'At  the  summer  assizes  of  Kilkenny,  in  1810,  one  Barry  was 
convicted  of  a  capital  offence,  for  which  he  was  afterwards  executed. 
This  man's  case  was  truly  tragical — ^he  was  wholly  innocent — was  a 
respectable  Catholic  farmer  in  the  county  of  Waterford.  His 
innocence  was  fully  established  in  the  interval  between  his  conviction 
and  execution,  yet  he  was  hanged,  publicly  protesting  his  innocence ! 
There  were  some  shocking  circumstances  attending  this  case,  which 
the  Duke  of  Richmond's  administration  may  yet  be  invited  to  explain 
to  parliament.' 

"After  the  libel,  close  follows  the  inuendo,  '  meaning  that  the  said 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  279 

Barry  did  not  obtain  pardon,  because  he  was  a  Catholic,  although 
his  innocence  was  fully  proved  to  the  knowledge  of  the  said  Duke  of 
Richmond,  &c.' 

"  Such  was  the  information  which  had  been  filed  by  his  Majesty's 
Attorney,  upon  which  a  jury  returned  a  verdict  of  guilty,  and 
in  consequence  of  which  Mr.  Fitzpatrick  then  stood  in  actual 
custody. 

"  The  first  of  these  objections  to  allowing  the  verdict  to  stand, 
turned  upon  what  was  conceived  to  be  the  misdirection  of  the 
learned  judge's  charge,  which  had  left  it  to  the  jury  to  decide  upon  the 
truth  and  applicability  of  the  last  inuendo,  which  was  described,  as  the 
meaning  of  the  passage,  that  the  said  Lord  Lieutenant  had  been 
advised  by  his  ministers  to  refuse  pardon  to  a  person  where 
innocence  had  been  made  apparent  after  his  trial  and  condemnation, 
and  that  such  pardon  had  been  accordingly  refused  in  the  face  of  a 
conviction  of  innocence,  and  solely  because  he  was  a  Catholic. 

"  This  inuendo  contained  much  new  matter  which  had  not  been 
spoken  of  before. 

"  Of  all  this,  said  Mr.  O'Connell,  there  had  been  no  previous 
averment ;  the  information  contained  only  an  assertion  of  the  inten- 
tion being  to  viUfy.  There  was  not  a  word  in  the  libel  concerning 
advice  received  by  the  Lord  Lieutenant,  or  of  any  action  of  his  in 
consequence  of  it ;  yet,  that  such  averment  was  necessary  there  was 
the  strongest  authority  to  prove.  In  the  case  of  the  King  against 
Home,  where  the  opinion  of  the  twelve  judges  of  England  was  asked 
by  the  House  of  Lords,  and  was  delivered  by  the  Lord  Chief  Justice 
De  Grey,  his  lordship  states  (reported.  Cooper,  page  683)  that  where 
a  libel  is  of  such  a  nature,  either  from  its  being  ironical,  or  from 
having  an  allusion  to  circumstances  not  generally  known,  that  the 
words  in  which  it  is  given  do  not,  of  themselves,  convey  all  that  is 
meant  and  understood,  it  is  necessary  that  the  things  so  understood 
and  not  expressed,  should  be  laid  before  the  jury ;  but  that  a  jury 
cannot  take  cognizance  of  them  unless  they  be  upon  the  record, 
where  they  cannot  be  unless  by  an  averment ;  so  that  either  the 
charge  of  the  Court,  upon  the  trial  of  Mr.  Fitzpatrick,  must  have 
been  wrong,  or  the  opinion  of  the  twelve  English  judges,  expressed 
by  Lord  De  Grey,  must  be  so.  It  could  not  be  said  that  the 
inuendoes  themselves  were,  in  reality,  averments  ;  an  authority  (2nd 
Salkeld,  page  315)  was  perfectly  conclusive  on  this  subject;  an 
inuendo  being  there  defined  negatively  as  not  being  an  averment, 
but  on  the  contrary,  a  production,  id  est,  &c. 


276  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

"  It  being  thus  ruled  that  a  jury  could  not  take  cognizance  of  the 
matter  contained  in  an  inuendo,  without  there  having  been  a  pre- 
vious averment,  it  followed  that  no  evidence  in  support  of  the  in- 
uendo, in  the  present  case,  should  have  been  allowed  to  go  to  the 
jury,  or,  if  it  had  been  so  allowed,  that  the  judge  should  have  desired 
them  to  discharge  it  entirely  from  their  minds  previous  to  giving  a 
verdict.  This,  however,  had  not  been  done ;  and,  on  the  contrary, 
the  Court  had  desired  the  jviry  to  consider  the  information  precisely 
as  if  the  averments  had  been  regularly  made  ;  it  was  universally 
allowed  that  averments  were  necessary  to  let  in  evidence  of  meaning, 
even  where  such  evidence  could  be  produced.  But  here,  in  point  of 
fact,  the  Crown  did  not  go  into  any  evidence  to  show  the  meaning, 
or  prove  the  inuendoes ;  and,  with  great  respect,  he  conceived  that 
the  jury  should  have  been  told,  there  was  no  evidence  in  support  of 
the  inuendoes,  and  directing  them  to  find  the  truth  and  applicability 
of  those  inuendoes,  there  being  no  averments,  was  travelling  out  of 
the  limits  prescribed  by  the  law,  and  recognised  by  Chief  Justice 
De  Grey  and  the  twelve  judges  of  England,  and,  therefore,  he  con- 
ceived that  the  charge  of  the  learned  judge  had  been  erroneous,  and 
contrary  to  law. 

"  The  next  ground  to  which  he  should  call  the  attention  of  the 
Court  was,  that  there  existed  a  material  variation  as  to  a  matter  of 
fact,  between  the  evidence  given  or  admitted,  and  the  information. 
The  information  stated,  that  the  libel  had  been  published  of,  and 
concerning  the  persons  acting  as  his  Majesty's  ministers  in  Ireland; 
that  is,  of  the  persons  so  acting  at  the  time  of  the  publication  of  the 
libel.  Now,  it  was  obvious  that  this  was  an  anachronism  of  the 
grossest  kind.  The  circumstance  which  gave  occasion  to  the  libel 
had  taken  place  in  1809  ;  the  book  had  been  published  in  1812,  and 
the  ministers  of  these  two  periods  were  entirely  different.  How, 
then,  could  the  libel  be  said  to  regard  the  ministry  existing  at  the 
time  of  its  publication  ?  It  was  impossible  that  it  could  not  exist 
without  entirely  vitiating  the  information. 

"  He  now  came  to  the  third  ground  for  the  motion,  and  upon  that 
he  should  be  still  more  brief  than  he  had  been  on  the  other  two  ;  it 
related  to  the  trifling  advantage  which  he  might  have  derived  from 
being  allowed  a  counsel  to  speak  to  evidence.  It  was  very  con- 
fidently relied  upon,  that  there  could  not  exist  any  doubt  as  to  the 
right  of  the  defendant,  evidence  having  been  produced  on  both  sides. 
The  objection  upon  the  trial  came  from  a  quarter  to  which  no  reply 
could  be  made,  namely,  the  Court ;  had  it  been  otherwise,  it  might 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  277 

have  been  easily  and  satisfactorily  shown,  that  the  reason  given  for 
this  decision  did  not  apply. 

"  Formerly,  it  had  been  the  practice,  if  the  defendant  had  evi- 
dence, to  allow  him  the  benefit  of  counsel  to  speak  to  that  evidence. 
The  judges  of  that  court  (the  King's  Bench),  however,  had  thought 
proper  to  alter  this  pi-actice ;  they  determined  that  no  second  counsel 
should  be  heard  upon  the  part  of  the  defendant,  and  they  gave  as  the 
reason  for  coming  to  this  decision,  that  the  defendant's  counsel,  in 
opening  his  case,  speaks  to  the  plaintiiFs  evidence,  and  observes  upon 
his  own.  It  was  also  a  part  of  the  rule,  that  unless  the  defen- 
dant goes  into  evidence,  the  plaintiff  has  no  right  to  be  heard  by  a 
second  counsel ;  yet  the  very  Court  he  was  then  addressing,  and 
which  had  made  the  rule,  had  heard  counsel  for  the  crown  twice  in 
the  case  of  the  King  v.  Kirwan,  although  there  had  been  no  evidence 
produced  by  the  defendant.  It  must  naturally  be  supposed,  that  the 
Court  had  determined,  that  in  civil  cases  no  -second  counsel  should  be 
heard,  but  that  criminal  ones  did  not  come  within  the  rule,  otherwise 
it  would  be,  in  fact,  granting  to  the  crown  an  additional  and  neces- 
sary advantage.  Lord  Kenyon,  in  the  case  of  the  King  v.  Abbing- 
ton  (1st  Espina,  136,)  condemns  the  practice. 

"  Considering  that  the  crown  had  the  benefit  of  the  great  and 
unrivalled  talents  of  the  Solicitor-General,  who  was  to  reply,  an 
advantage  which  nothing  could  have  procured  the  defendant,  and 
which  nothing  within  his  power  could  balance,  as  the  learned  gentle- 
man who  had  opened  his  case  could  not  be  heard  a  second  time,  and 
that  it  would  have  fallen  to  his  (Mr.  O'Connell's)  lot  to  have  spoken 
to  evidence,  his  client,  certainly,  had  lost  but  a  small  advantage  ; 
such  as  it  was,  however,  he  had  a  right  to  it ;  but  the  Court  had 
thought  propel-  to  over-rule  that  right,  and  in  doing  so  liad  referred 
to  the  case  of  the  King  v.  Kii'wan.  Coupling  the  decision  in  the 
case  referred  to,  with  that  on  the  late  trial,  it  came  to  this,  that  the 
rule  does  apply  to  take  away  the  advantage  from  the  traverser,  and 
that  it  does  not  apply  to  take  it  away  from  the  crown. 

"  This  was  a  position  which  he  was  sure  their  lordships  would  not 
think  of  establishing,  and  unless  they  did  so,  the  right  of  his  client 
to  the  benefit  of  a  second  counsel  was  unquestionable  ;  therefore,  the 
denial  of  it  by  the  Court  rendered  the  trial  faulty,  in  respect  to  the 
manner  in  which  it  had  been  conducted,  and  consequently  the  result 
of  it  nugatory. 

"  He  had  now  arrived  at  the  fourth  objection,  and  one  of  much 
impcrrance;  it  was,  that  the  jury  had,  upon  the  most  material  pan  of 


278  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

the  information,  found  the  verdict  without  evidence,  and  even 
contrary  to  evidence.  Mr.  O'Connell  here  read  over  the  paragraph 
forming  the  libel,  and  contended  that  there  had  not  been  sufficient 
evidence  to  connect  any  part  of  it  as  a  libel  with  the  name  of  the 
Duke  of  Richmond.  This  had  been  attempted,  indeed,  by  connect- 
ing the  circumstance  mentioned  in  the  libellous  note,  with  passages 
in  the  text  to  which  a  construction  had  been  given  favourable  to  the 
inference  wished  to  be  drawn  from  the  whole.  It  was  first  said  that 
the  passages  thus  read,  stated  that  government  was  influenced  in 
granting  pardon  to  criminals,  or  in  denying  it  by  their  religious 
persuasions ;  and  it  was  then  concluded  that  the  note  was  intended 
to  give  an  instance  of  the  partiality  alluded  to  in  the  text ;  and  had 
the  text  been  examined  more  clearly,  it  would  have  appeared  that  the 
thing  expressed  was,  that  Protestant  criminals  had  a  greater  facility  in 
procuring  attestations  of  previous  good  character,  or  of  other  circum- 
stances, such  as  usually  entitle  to  pardon,  than  Catholics,  and, 
consequently,  that  the  Lord  Lieutenant,  so  far  from  having  been 
accused,  was  justified  for  granting  pardon  more  frequently  to  the 
one  than  the  other ;  the  note,  then,  being  an  instance  of  what  was 
asserted  in  the  text,  could  not  reflect,  by  any  means,  upon  the  Lord 
Lieutenant.  As  to  the  concluding  part  of  the  note,  which  stated 
that  the  Duke  of  Richmond's  administration  might  yet  be  invited  to 
explain  certain  circumstances  to  parliament,  it  only  meant  that  the 
documents  for  regular  investigation,  being  in  possession  of  the  ministry, 
could  not  be  procured  without  inviting  its  aid. 

"  Had  the  trial  been  had  before  an  unbiased  j  ury,  it  was  very 
probable  that  the  result  would  have  been  very  different.  It  was 
very  likely  that  they  would  not  have  been  content  with  the  mere 
assertion  of  the  Attorney-General,  that  the  note  which  formed  the 
subject  of  the  libel  was  intended  to  vilify  the  Lord  Lieutenant  and 
his  Majesty's  ministers  in  Ireland,  acting  under  his  authority  ;  they 
might  possibly  require  an  explanation  of  tvho  those  persons,  called 
ministers,  actually  icere,  before  they  convicted  a  respectable  and 
honest  man  of  libelling  them,  merely  because  the  Attorney- General 
had  thought  fit  to  say  they  were  libelled. 

"  It  was  matter  of  Irish  history,  that  when  these  state  prose- 
cutions were  carrying  on  against  a  Catholic  of  this  country, 
not  one  man  of  his  own  religion  was  suffered  to  remain  upon  the 
panel. 

"  This  had  been  stated  by  the  respectable  and  learned  gentleman 
who  had  opened  Fitzpatrick's   case,  and  was  not  attemped   to  be 


DANIEL    o'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.V.  279 

denied.  It  was  observed,  indeed,  that  one  Catholic  name  had 
happened  to  be  put  upon  the  panel  through  mistake  ;  this  fault, 
however,  was  not  intentional ;  it  had  occurred,  by  accident,  and  no 
doubt  the  apology  which  such  a  trespass  required  was  made.  He 
was  not  now  stating  anything  improbable  or  unwarranted,  for  it  was 
a  well  known  fact  that  the  persons  who  had  the  appointment  of  the 
jury,  had  given  a  solemn  and  deliberate  pledge  of  their  dislike  and 
Iiatred  of  Catholics ;  and  that  it  was  to  this  avowed  hostility  to  so 
numerous  and  loyal  a  class  of  his  Majesty's  people,  that  they  awed 
their  election.  Thus,  in  a  case  where  a  Catholic  is  tried  upon  a 
charge  of  asserting,  that  the  Catholic  subjects  of  this  country  have 
not  equal  justice  done  them,  special  care  is  taken  that  not  more 
than  one  Catholic  shall  be  put  upon  the  panel,  and  that  he  shall  not 
be  of  the  jury,  but  that  the  accused  shall  be  tried  by  twelve  men,  of  a 
different  persuasion  from  himself,  and  some  of  them,  perhaps, 
strongly  imbued  with  prejudices  unfavourable  to  himself  and  his 
religion.  Had  the  question  been  one  of  property,  such  a  disgraceful 
circumstance  would  not  have  taken  place  in  the  city  of  Dublin, 
where  as  many  upright,  wealthy,  and  respectable  Catholics  were  to 
be  found,  as  could  be  selected  from  the  ranks  of  their  Protestant 
fellow  subjects. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  now  shortly  recapitulated  his  arguments,  and  sub- 
mitted to  the  Court  that  he  had  made  out  a  case  sufficient  to  induce 
their  lordships  to  set  aside  the  verdict ;  and  if  Mr.  Attorney-General 
thought  it  prudent  to  file  a  fresh  information,  that  a  new  investigation 
should  be  entered  into. 

"The  Chief  Justice  said,  that  Mr.  O'Connell  had  made  much 
more  of  the  argument  than,  in  the  beginning,  he  thought  could  be 
done. 

"  Motion  refused. 

"  A  suggestion  was  made  that  it  should  remain  over  tiU  next  tenn. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell — '  But,  my  lord,  Mr.  Fitzpatrick  is  in  actual 
custody,  and  it  would  be  very  oppressive  that  he  should  remain  in 
confinement  the  whole  of  the  vacation,  when  it  is  strongly  relied  upon 
that  there  are  sufficient  grounds  to  arrest  judgment.' 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  prayed  the  Court  that  Mr.  Fitzpatrick's  recog- 
nizance might  be  immediately  taken,  in  order  to  avoid  his  re- 
maining in  custody  all  night.  He  said  that  Mr.  Fitzpatrick  was  a 
respectable  man,  and  there  was  no  danger  but  he  would  be  forth- 
coming. He,  therefore,  presumed  that  his  own  recognizance  would 
be  sufficient. 


280  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

"  Security — himself  in  £1,000,  and  two  others  in  £500  each — 
required. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell — '  You  were  already  offered  to  have  that  requi- 
sition complied  with  upon  fair  terms.  The  bail  shall  be  immediately 
produced.' " 

The  conduct  of  the  English  Catholics  came  under  discussion 
for  the  second  time  this  year,  in  the  Dublin  Board,  on  the  13th 
of  February.     On  this  occasion — 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  rose  to  propose  a  resolution,  on  which  he  believed 
there  would  be  but  one  feeling  in  the  board.  It  related  to  the 
gratuitous  intei'ference  of  a  gentleman  in  England,  and  a  Catholic, 
too.  The  Catholics  had  before  suffered  from  the  officious  and  un- 
authorized interference  of  persons,  who  had  undertaken  to  act  for 
them  with,  perhaps,  the  very  best  intentions  in  the  world  ;  and  it 
had,  therefore,  become  necessary  for  them  to  pay  close  attention  to 
any  thing  of  the  kind  which  was  attempted,  no  matter  from  what 
quarter  it  came.  If,  as  he  had  just  stated,  that  individual  inter- 
ference, though  accompanied  by  excellent  intention,  had  produced 
unpleasant  consequences,  how  much  more  likely  was  such  conduct  to 
cause  ill  effects,  if  it  were  the  offspring  of  a  contrary  disposition  ? 

"  Whether  the  intentions  of  Mr.  Charles  Butler  wei^e  of  this  latter 
description  or  not,  he  should  not  then  take  upon  him  to  decide ;  but 
this  much  was  certain,  that  he  had  echoed  the  despicable  and  un- 
founded cant  which  the  enemies  of  the  body  had  been  at  such  pains 
to  propagate  ;  he  had  complained  of  the  intemperance  with  which 
the  just  demands  of  so  many  millions  of  loyal  though  oppressed 
people  were  urged.  He  had  even  gone  farther ;  he  had  attempted 
to  prove  that  the  board  had  been  guilty  of  intemperance ;  but  he 
(Mi\  O'Connell)  denied  that  he  had  proved  any  such  thing ;  he 
utterly  dissented  from  the  chai'ge  and  assertion. 

"  It  was  not  intemperance  for  men,  who  knew  they  deserved  to  be 
free,  to  wish  for  freedom  ;  it  was  not  intemperance  for  men,  whom 
the  gifts  of  nature  and  the  advantages  of  rank  and  fortune,  had  com- 
bined to  render  eminent ;  it  was  not  for  such  men  to  be  charged  with 
intemperance,  because  they  panted  to  enjoy  those  common  rights, 
which  are  the  inheritance  of  every  man  in  this  community.  When 
my  Lord  Aldborough,  and  my  Lord  Kiltarton,  and  such  holy  apostles, 
assisted  by  others,  whom  motives  of  personal  delicacy  induced  him  to  re- 
frain from  mentioning,  wished  to  drown  the  Catholics  in  their  inferio- 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,  M.P.  281 

rity — to  force  them  to  continue  Helots — slaves — when  they  saw  men 
endeavouring  to  perpetuate  and  sustain  every  sort  of  political  pro- 
fligacy, and  to  clothe  that  profligacy  in  the  sacred  mantle  of  Chris- 
tianity— it  was  not  to  be  wondered  at  if  those  who  were  the  sufferers, 
should  assert,  with  a  manly,  but  constitutional  firmness,  the  impolicy 
and  injustice  of  perpetuating  their  degradation. 

"  And  was  it  for  this  that  they  were  to  be  charged  with  intempe- 
rance, by  such  men  as  he  had  described  ?  And  how  could  Mr. 
Charles  Butler  satisfactorily  account  for  lending  himself  to  such  a 
charge  ?  He  (Mr.  O'Connell)  proclaimed  the  charge  to  be  a  foul 
and  malignant  stratagem,  invented  by  the  enemies  of  the  cause  of 
Ireland  and  of  the  empire.  Thank  God !  they  could  not  say  that 
the  Catholics  prostrated  themselves  at  the  foot  of  the  minister,  for 
the  purpose  of  advancing  their  interest,  or  that  they  sacrificed  them- 
selves on  the  altar  of  dishonour,  and  bartered  to  become  the  slaves 
of  corruption,  instead  of  being  the  slaves  of  an  unjust  and  impolitic 
penal  code.  Slavery,  in  the  first  instance,  would  be  infamy  in  them- 
selves; in  the  other  (although  acutely  felt  by  the  victim),  it  reflected 
disgrace  only  on  their  oppressors  ! 

'*  He  moved  the  following  resolution : — 

"Resolved — That  from  recent  information,  we  deem  it  necessary  to  state, 
that  no  person  has  been,  or  is  authorised  to  hold  any  communication  with  any 
members  of  the  administration  on  behalf  of  the  Catholics  of  Ireland  as  respect- 
ing their  affairs,  our  confidence  being  reposed  in  the  noblemen  and  gentlemen 
composing  the  delegation,  and  acting  under  the  directions  of  the  board. 

"  The  resolution  passed  unanimously." 

At  a  meeting  of  the  board,  on  24th  April — 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  gave  notice  of  a  motion  which  he  intends  to  submit 
at  the  next  meeting  of  the  board,  for  the  appointment  of  a  sub-com- 
mittee to  make  inquiries  respecting  the  forged  signatures  attached  to 
the  Dublin  Protestant  petition,  so  as  that  the  same  may  be  brought 
before  parliament. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  entered  notice  of  a  motion  that  the  delegates  be 
requested  to  return  to  England  for  the  purpose  of  entreating  the  par- 
liamentary friends  of  the  Catholics  to  expedite  the  bringing  in  the 
bill,  &c." 

On  Thursday,  the  25th  of  February,  in  this  year  (1813),  Mr. 
Grattan,  in  a  committee  of  the  whole  house,  moved  a  resolution 
on  which  to  found  a  bill  for  Catholic  Emancipation. 


282  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

The  discussion  upon  his  resolution  was  animated,  and  pro- 
tracted, by  adjournments,  to  early  on  Wednesday  morning,  the 
9th  of  March,  when  the  committee  divided  as  follows  r — 

For  Mr.  Grattan's  motion  ...        264 

Against     ..---,        224 

Majority  in  favour  -  -  -  40 

This  result  was  hailed  in  Ireland  with  feelings  of  joy,  mixed, 
however,  with  anxieties,  lest  the  forthcoming  measure  of  relief 
should  include  any  mention  of  the  odious  "  securities." 

At  the  end  of  April  the  bill  itself  was  introduced ;  and  these 
anxieties  were  found  to  be  a  good  deal  justified. 

One  clause  of  it  stipulated  that  every  Catholic  clergyman 
should  swear  "  that  he  would  not  assent  to,  nor  concur  in,  the 
appointment  of  any  Catholic  prelate  in  Ireland,  unless  he  should 
consider  such  prelate  to  be  of  unimpeachable  loyalty,  and  peace- 
able conduct !  I " 

On  Saturday,  May  the  8th,  the  Catholic  Board  met  at  their 
rooms,  in  Capel-street,  to  discuss  their  new  prospects.  Consi- 
derable interest  had  been  excited  as  to  the  course  they  would 
take ;  and,  accordingly,  the  attendance  was  as  large  as  could  be 
at  all  accommodated.  The  Duke  of  Leinster;  his  brother. 
Lord  William  Fitzgerald ;  his  brother-in-law.  Lord  Kinnaird ; 
and  Lord  Forbes,  son  of  Earl  Granard,  were  among  the 
visitants. 

Sir  Edward  Bellew  took  the  chair. 

Several  letters  were  read.  Amongst  others,  one  from  the 
Right  Rev.  Dr.  Milner,  from  England,  the  contents  of  which 
are  described  to  have  been  "  quite  polemical,  denouncing  clauses 
in  the  new  bill,  questioning  the  purity  of  the  motives  of  several 
characters  who  have  been  engaged  in  framing  it,  and  insinuating 
something  like  an  imputation  on  Mr.  Grattan." 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  lioped  that  the  Catholic  Board  would  not  be 
embarrassed  by  the  discussion  of  polemics,  with  which  it  had  nothing 
to  do.  He  could  not  reconcile  it  to  himself,  to  sit  down  without 
giving  notice  of  a  motion  which  he  thought  the  reading  of  that  letter 
called  for.     Whenever  the  illustrious  and  venerated  name  of  Grattan 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  283 

was  mentioned  at  that  board  with  anything  bordering  on  lightness  or 
disrespect,  he  conceived  it  the  bounden  duty  of  the  members  to  come 
forward  to  remove  the  possibility  of  having  it  supposed  that  their 
confidence  in  their  long-tried  advocate  could  be  shaken.  (Hear, 
hear.)  Therefore,  he  should  give  notice  of  a  motion  for  next  Satur- 
day, that  the  Right  Hon.  Henry  Grattan  merits  and  possesses  the 
confidence- of  the  Catholics.     (Hear,  hear.) 

"  FOKGED  SIGNATURES. 

*'  Mr.  O'Connell  rose,  and  stated  that  it  was  his  intention  to  move 
for  the  appointment  of  a  committee  to  consider  in  what  manner  most 
consistent  with  that  delicacy  which  it  was  desirable  to  observe  towards 
the  real  Protestant  petitioners,  the  immense  number  of  forged  and 
fictitious  names  which  had  been  afiixed  to  the  petition,  styled  that  of 
the  '  Freeholders,  Freemen,  and  Inhabitants  of  the  city  of  Dublin,' 
and  which  had  been  presented  with  such  ludicrous  pomp  and  cere- 
mony, might  be  brought  before  the  imperial  parliament. 

"  He  requested  permission  to  take  that  opportunity  of  returning 
his  thanks  for  the  high  honour  conferred  upon  him,  on  the  last  day  of 
meeting,  in  his  appointment  as  one  of  the  Catholic  delegates.  He 
entreated  also  leave  to  excuse  himself  from  the  apparent  neglect  of 
his  duties  as  such.  Those  who  voted  for  him  ought  to  have 
recollected  how  entirely  impossible  it  was  for  him,  at  this  period  of 
term,  to  leave  Dublin.  He  was  ready  to  make  every  sacrifice 
for  the  common  cause  ;  he  was  ready  to  sacrifice  his  life  to  advance 
civil  or  religious  liberty  in  his  native  land.  But  he  could  not  tamper 
with  the  interests  of  other  persons  at  that  moment  confided  to  his 
hands.  He,  therefore,  very  gratefully  and  very  respectfully  tendered 
his  resignation  of  the  oflice  of  delegate. 

"  As  to  the  plan  which  he  should  recommend  for  the  exposure  of 
the  forgeries,  he  could  not  have  thought  necessary  to  suggest  it  at  all, 
had  the  Catholic  bill  been  rejected.  He  was  little  disposed  to  desire 
the  Catholics  to  alter  their  tone  at  any  time ;  but  when  the  legislature 
evinced  so  decided  a  disposition  to  grant  and  to  conciliate,  he  did  not 
think  a  con-esponding  spirit  should  be  wanted  on  their  part. 

"  The  Catholics  had  at  length  arrived  at  that  important  stage  of  their 
history,  that  a  bill,  intended  to  give  them^.  relief,  was  actually  making 
progress  in  parliament.  The  good  intentions  of  their  friends  in  parlia- 
ment were  obvious  ;  they  intended  to  extend  eligibility — all  that  was 
required — Avith  considerable  liberality.     What  a  deplorable  circum- 


284  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

Stance  it  was,  tliat,  with  such  excellent  dispositions,  they  have  not 
taken  the  trouble  of  acquiring  such  information  as  would  enable  them 
to  carry  their  good  intentions  into  practical  effect !  The  bill  they 
had  brought  in  was  a  well-intentioned  bill,  but  it  was  a  slovenly 
bill !     Slovenly  in  its  recitals — slovenly  and  inaccurate  in  its  details. 

"  Before  proceeding  further,  he  wished  the  tenor  and  object  of  his 
remarks  to  be  distinctly  understood.  There  were  clauses  purely 
civil,  and  clauses  that  had  reference  to  ecclesiastical  matters  in  this 
bill.  Upon  the  nature  of  the  latter  he  should  observe  a  total  silence. 
The  discussion  of  them  was  too  well  calculated  to  produce  heats 
which  it  was  his  object  to  avoid.  He  should  confine  himself  closely 
to  the  subject  of  civil  rights  ;  the  board  was  not  called  upon  to 
entertain  the  question  of  religious  security  at  all,  nor,  in  fact,  was  it 
necessary  to  be  introduced  anywhere  for  the  present.  When  it  was 
seen  that  the  legislature  would  grant  civil  liberty,  then  it  would 
be  time  to  let  those  whose  province  it  was,  consider  of  religious 
security. 

"  As  he  had  bestowed  much  attention  upon  the  bill,  and  as  he  was 
anxious  to  serve  his  countrymen  at  home,  when  he  did  not  perceive 
how  he  could  do  it  by  going  to  England,  he  had  felt  it  his  duty  to 
lay  before  the  board  the  frame  and  plan  of  a  bill  for  civil  liberty, 
such  as  he  conceived  could  not  fail  to  satisfy  the  people.  In  submit- 
ting this  frame,  he  would  again  repeat,  that  he  gave  the  persons  who 
had  prepared  and  brought  the  bill  now  before  parliament,  the  most 
perfect  credit  for  the  purity  of  their  intentions.  His  objections  to  the 
frame  of  the  bill  were,  perhaps,  but  technical,  still  he  thought  them 
entitled  to  attention.  There  were  phrases  in  the  recital  and  enact- 
ment which  were  new  and  unknown  to  the  constitution  and  law. 
Catholics  were  to  be  made  participators  in  what  was  called  '  Free 
Government.'  What  was  the  legal  meaning  of  the  word  government  ? 
It  was  a  term,  the  legal  meaning  of  which  was  unknown  and  undefined. 
It  would  apply  equally  well  to  the  government  of  Constantinople  as 
to  that  of  England.  In  the  common  meaning  of  the  word  here,  we 
are  apt  to  think  of  the  government  of  the  Duke  of  Richmond  when 
the  words  were  used,  and  the  Catholics  did  not  desire  to  have  it 
understood  that  they  wished  to  participate  in  his  grace's  government. 
They  felt  no  such  inclination  ;  their  wish  was  to  participate  in  the 
constitution — in  the  free  constitution  that  had  been  framed  by 
Catholics — by  rigid  Catholics — all  of  whose  grand,  but  now 
neglected  principles  of  popular  power  and  popular  representation, 
had  been  established  before  Protestantism  had  a  being  or  a  name. 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  285 

"  It  might  be  deemed  trivial  to  criticise  verbal  inaccuracies ;  but 
let  it  be  borne  in  mind,  that  these  were  the  words  of  an  instrument 
purporting  to  be  a  great  state  bond  and  compact  between  two  nations, 
united  in  name,  but  kept  separate  by  impolicy  and  injustice.  (Hear, 
hear.)  In  this  important  act  every  word  was  of  moment,  for,  upon 
every  word  would  depend  the  liberties  of  living,  and  of  yet  unborn 
millions  !     (Hear,  hear,  hear.) 

"  And  sorry  he  was  to  say,  that  to  defective  recitals,  still  more 
defective  enactments  were  attached.  True  it  would,  upon  the 
condition  of  taking  this  vile  oath,  open  the  House  of  Commons  and 
the  House  of  Peers,  and  many  an  important  office  and  honourable 
rank,  and  serve  as  a  stage  in  the  natural  progress  to  the  complete 
establishment  of  an  equalization  of  civil  rights.  But  it  was  slovenly 
as  far  as  related  to  the  peerage  ;  it  was  defective  as  far  as  related  to 
judicial  offices  ;  it  was  useless  with  respect  to  corporations ;  and  it 
did  nothing  at  ail  for  charities,  education,  marriage,  or  landed 
property ;  and  this  was  but  a  brief  and  amicable  summary  of  its 
defects. 

"  Such  was  the  bill  which  was  at  that  moment  before  the  house. 
How  different  from  what  it  ought  to  be — how  different  from  what  it 
might  have  been,  if  our  excellent  liberators  had  but  condescended  to 
consult  the  parties  most  interested.     (Hear,  hear.) 

"  A  draft  of  a  bill  has  been  prepared  by  my  friend,  to  whose 
pen  and  to  whose  services  the  Catholics  are  so  much  indebted  (Mr. 
Finlay).  It  has  my  warm  approbation,  because  it  is  comprehensive 
in  its  principles — ample  in  its  relief.  It  would  abolish  all  civil  and 
lay  distinctions  for  cause  of  conscience,  and  open  to  every  faithful 
subject  a  career  unfettered  by  the  trammels  of  persecuting  laws.  It 
would  leave  for  merit  what  is  now  conceded  to  creed,  and  destroy 
jealousies  and  religious  animosities  by  removing  their  causes.  Such 
was  the  bill  which,  he  trusted,  would  yet  be  brought  before  parlia- 
ment.    He  begged  permission,  as  it  was  short,  to  read  it     .     .     . 

"  Upon  this  Mr.  O'Connell  was  called  to  order  by  Mr.  Baggot,  Mr. 
Costigan,  and  Counsellor  Bellew,  who  spoke  at  considerable  length  to 
show  that  the  merits  of  the  bill,  or  of  any  substitute  for  it,  could  not 
be  relevant  to  the  object  of  the  motion  before  the  board. 

"  After  a  good  deal  of  discussion  upon  the  point  of  order,  in  which 
Mr.  O'Gorman  and  Counsellor  Finn  also  took  part,  the  chairman 
decided  that  Mr.  O'Connell  was  certainly  out  of  order,  and  that  the 
draft  of  the  proposed  bill  should  not  be  read. 


286  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  immediateiy  submitted  to  the  decision  of  the 
chairman,  although  he  said  he  could  show  that  what  he  had  been 
saying  bore  directly  upon  the  question  then  before  the  board  ;  before 
he  proceeded,  however,  to  the  more  immediate  discussion  of  that 
question,  he  gave  notice  of  his  intention  to  submit,  next  Saturday, 
a  brief  abstract  and  skeleton  of  such  a  bill  as  he  conceived  was 
calculated  to  grant  real  and  complete  Emancipation.  (Cheers.)  I 
am  now  come  (said  he)  to  that  part  of  the  question  which  is  included 
in  the  very  terms  of  my  motion.  I  am  not  confined  to  the  history  of 
the  fraud  and  forgery  of  which  I  now  complain.  I  shall  not,  I  trust, 
be  interrupted  whilst  I  observe  shortly  upon  its  clauses.  I  allude  not 
to  the  hostility — the  rancorous  but  ineffectual  hostility  of  the 
Richmond  administration,  in  this  country,  to  the  rights  of  the  Irish 
Catholics.  That  is  scarcely  worthy  of  investigation,  and  deserves 
little  more  than  to  be  mentioned  for  the  purpose,  simply,  of  reproba- 
tion. The  causes  I  advert  to  lie  deeper  ;  they  are  to  be  found  in 
the  great  and  continued  success  of  which  falsehood — unblushing 
falsehood — ^has  already  had  against  the  Irish  Catholics  !  It  was  not 
in  the  field  of  battle  that  our  liberties  were  cloven  down  !  (Hear, 
hear.)  No  !  Our  ancestors  when  they  fought,  if  they  did  not  advance 
as  victors,  surrendered  upon  the  faith  of  an  honourable  capitulation  ; 
but  that  faith  was  violated,  and  its  violation  was  justified  by 
calumny !  (Hear,  hear,  hear.)  The  Catholics  were  accused  of 
entertaining  opinions  which  they  have  ever  detested — of  adopting 
positions  and  principles  which  they  have  ever  abhorred.  Charges 
were  brought  forward  and  repeated  against  them  which  could  be 
aptly  contradicted  only  in  the  broad  vulgarity  of  Lord  Ellenborough's 
language — '  Charges  false  as  Hell !'  Charges — the  falsehood  of 
which  was  known  to  the  very  accusers  themselves — were  repeated, 
until  the  credulous  were  convinced,  and  the  weak  yielded.  From  the 
Press,  the  Stage,  the  Bar,  the  Bench,  and  the  Pulpit,  were  opinions 
charged  upon  the  Catholics  directly  the  reverse  of  what  they  enter- 
tained, and  articles  of  belief  asserted  to  be  theirs,  which  they  always 
rejected  and  abjured.  Those  who  were  violators  of  their  own  faith 
with  the  Catholics  in  fact,  accused  the  Catholics  of  being  violators 
of  faith  in  theory  ;  and  those  men  who  persecuted  the  Catholics  in 
reality,  accused  their  victims  of  being  persecutors  in  imagination  and 
design !     (Hear,  hear.) 

"  The  accusation  you  feel  and  know  to  be  utterly  false,  but  it 
was  repeated  until  it  was  believed,  and  the  Catholic  suffered  the 
punishment,  not  of  any  crime  of  which  he  could,  by  any  possibility, 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,  M.P.  287 

be  proved  guilty,  but  of  offences  fabricated  in  the  malicious  fancies 
of  enemies,  and  which  were  not  only  unfounded,  but  impossible. 
They  were  impossible,  because  so  utterly  repugnant  to  human  nature, 
and  contradicted  by  the  stamp  of  his  own  divine  image,  which  the 
Deity  had  infixed  upon  the  human  soul.  (Cheering.) 

"  Yet,  it  was  by  the  assertion  and  re-assertion  of  those  calumnies 
— it  was  by  attributing  to  us  opinions  which,  if  they  existed,  I  should 
be  sorry  a  single  Catholic  remained  in  Ireland — I  am  quite  sure  I 
should  not  be  one.  It  was  by  those  false  and  foul  imputations  that 
we  were  degraded  in  public  opinion,  and  then  reduced  to  slavery, 
and  since  continued  in  bondage. 

"  It  was  vain  to  protest  against  the  untruths  ;  for  near  a  century 
they  maintained  their  sway,  and  new  generations  sprung  up  before 
the  appeal  of  calumniated  millions  was  heard,  or  their  wrongs 
investigated.  (Hear,  hear.) 

"  Falsehood  having  been  so  long  successful,  it  suited  well  to  the  mis- 
chievous and  malignant  activity  of  the  management  of  the  Richmond 
administration  to  resort  to  its  resourses.  Accordingly,  the  most  impure 
and  corrupt  Press  that  ever  disgraced  any  age  was  set  at  work,  with 
plenty  of  present  pay  and  of  future  expectation,  to  traduce,  to  calum- 
niate, and  to  vilify  the  Catholics  collectively  and  individually.  (Hear,) 
Accordingly,  all  the  ancient  calumnies  were  revived,  and  every  new 
calumny  brought  forward  that  could  be  invented  by  a  veiy  malignant 
disposition,  but  a  very  miserable  intellect.  The  seven-times-sold 
apostate  from  every  principle  was  purchased  and  arrayed  against  us, 
until  all  the  force  that  malicious  dulness  could  collect  was  brought 
into  action,  and  commanded  by  a  general  better  versed  in  the  quib- 
bles of  the  law,  than  in  the  tactics  of  the  field.  It  was  in  pursuance 
of  this  government  plan  of  imposition,  that  the  '  Third  part  of  the  « 
Statement  of  the  Penal  Laws'  made  its  appearance — that  it  was 
circulated  in  England  as  genuine,  and  given  to  the  world  as  the 
sentiments  of  men,  who  held  its  contents  and  its  authors  in  equal 
contempt ! 

"  Perhaps,  so  scandalous  and  impudent  an  imposition  never  dis- 
graced the  annals  of  bigotry.  But  the  fabricators — have  they  been 
punished  ?  Oh,  no !  Mr.  Attorney- General  has  no  terrors  for  men 
who  would  divide  and  distract ;  he  prudently  reserves  all  his  ven- 
geance for  those  who  dare  to  preach  harmony  and  conciliation,  and 
to  call  oppression  and  bigotry  by  their  right  names.  "^ 

"  Next  in  order  followed  this  petition,  the  signatures  to  which  are 
the  object  of  my  present   motion.     It  commenced  in  falsehood,  it 


288  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

was  conducted  by  fraud,  and  it  was  consummated  by  forgery.  Yes, 
its  commencement  was  in  falsehood,  for  it  was  alleged  to  have  been 
voted  at  a  meeting  of  '  the  freemen,  freeholders,  and  inhabitants  of 
the  city  of  Dublin.'  This  allegation  was  printed  in  several  of 
the  Dublin  newspapers  for  near  three  months,  and  to  the  assertion 
was  affixed  the  name  '  Abraham  Bradley  King,'  and  yet  a  more  un- 
founded assertion  was  never  made — an  allegation  more  destitute  of 
truth  never  insulted  the  patience  of  public  credulity,  than  that  signed 
and  repeated  for  three  months,  under  the  signature  of  '  Abraham 
Bradley  King.'  I  need  not  ask,  when  this  meeting  was  called,  or 
where,  or  by  whom  ?  I  need  not  remind  you,  that  there  was  no 
theatre  sufficiently  large  to  contain  such  a  meeting,  if  it  ever  took 
place ;  nor  need  I  revive  the  indignation  which  the  miserable  excuse 
excited,  that,  really,  the  exhausted  remnant  of  a  supper  table  at  the 
Mayor's  house,  did  vote  itself,  being  full  half  a  dozen  in  number,  into 
the  freemen,  freeholders,  and  inhabitants  of  the  City  of  Dublin,  and 
then  passed  this  petition !  And  yet,  in  sober  sadness,  it  must  be 
admitted  that  no  better  justification  existed  for  the  Lord  Mayor's 
assertion  of  a  public  meeting. 

"  I  said  that  it  was  conducted  by  fraud  ;  for  this  fraud,  we  are 
told  by  the  uncontradicted  report  of  the  public  papers,  was  resorted 
to.  The  Mayor  procured  himself  to  be  deputed — nobody  knows  by 
whom — to  take  the  petition  to  London.  Arrived  there,  he  presented, 
we  are  told,  the  no-popery  petition,  as  the  authorized  delegate  of  the 
Corporation  of  Dublin.  Yet,  he  had  no  such  authority  ;  he  was  the 
simple  messenger  of  a  simple  party  of  obscure  individuals  who,  as 
this  petition  originated  at  a  supper,  sent  him  off  from  a  dinner,  after 
which  the  Duke  of  Richmond  ludicrously  graced  him  with  a  troop 
of  horse  to  accompany  his  mock  lordship  thence  to  the  pigeon-house. 
His  vei-y  journey  to  London  was  a  fraud,  because  it  held  out  to  the 
English  people  the  appearance  of  the  first  magistrate  of  a  great  city  de- 
spatched by  the  constituted  authorities  of  that  city  on  public  business. 
Under  that  pretence  he  presented  himself  in  London,  whilst  it  is 
shrewdly  whispered  that  he  attended  for  the  purpose  of  endeavouring 
to  traffic  upon  the  importance  of  his  official  station,  in  order  to  get 
the  name  of  his  son  inserted  into  an  appointment  connected  with  his 
lucrative  employment.  In  short,  the  farce  was  just  worthy  of  the 
legal  managers  that  are  at  the  bottom  of  every  work  of  bigotry  and 
persecution  in  L'eland,  and  of  the  inflated  buffoon  who  was  the 
principal  actor. 

"  The  consummation  of  the  petition  was  forgery,  in  the  ordinary 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  289 

sense  of  the  word,  consisting  of  the  affixing  the  names  of  indivi- 
duals without  their  authority  or  consent ;  forgery,  equally,  if  not 
more  culpable,  in  writing  hundreds  of  imaginary  names,  and 
affixing  them  to  this  petition  from  a  multitude.  The  Protestants  of 
Ireland  petitioned  last  year  on  our  behalf.  The  wealth,  the  worth, 
the  talent  of  the  Irish  Protestants — every  thing  that  was  noble,  and 
dignified,  and  intelligent,  and  independent,  amongst  our  Protestant 
brethren,  united  in  that  petition  ;  their  names  have  been  printed, 
and  it  is  with  pride  and  with  pleasure  that  we  see  those  names  con- 
stitute a  large  book,  whilst  every  name  speaks  a  volume  of  mutual 
affection  and  reciprocal  charity.  This  is,  indeed,  a  proud  display 
for  Ireland  ;  this  was  all  she  wanted  from  man,  that  her  children 
should  combine  in  conciliation  and  harmony.  It  would,  really, 
have  afforded  a  curious  incident  in  the  history  of  human  frailty, 
if  those  who  had  come  forward  last  year,  under  the  banners  of 
liberality  and  justice,  had  been  seduced  this  year  to  join  the  blood- 
stained flag  of  Orange  intolerance.  (Hear,  hear.)  The  experiment 
had  been  made ;  every  thing  that  the  wealth  and  power  of  the 
state — that  the  ingenuity  of  the  advocates,  or  the  authority  of  the 
judges — that  the  exertions  of  the  writer,  or  the  intrigues  of  the 
courtier  could  supply,  was  brought  into  action,  to  seduce,  to  convince, 
to  intimidate,  to  control,  to  cajole,  and  to  deceive  the  Irish  Pro- 
testants. But  all  these  resources  failed ;  the  drunken  orgies  and  the 
morning  preaching  intemperance  of  abuse,  and  the  hypocritical 
lamentations  of  pretended  friendship  were  tried,  and  tried  without 
effect.  The  independent  aud  enlightened  Protestants  of  Ireland 
remained  true  to  the  liberality  which  they  had  professed,  and  re» 
jected  every  attempt  to  bring  them  over  to  the  ranks  of  our 
opponents.  (Hear,  hear.) 

"  It  was  a  matter,  therefore,  of  much  curiosity  to  discover  who 
the  2,800  '  freemen,  freeholders,  and  inhabitants  of  Dublin'  could 
possibly  be  :  public  curiosity  has  been  gratified — gratified  by  the 
inspection  of  the  names — gratified  by  the  discovery  that  the  dagger 
is  air-drawn  and  imaginary,  by  which  it  was  sought  to  assassinate 
Protestant  character  and  Catholic  liberty!  (Hear,  hear.)  I  have 
seen  an  authentic  copy  of  this  formidable  petition,  and  I  rejoice 
to  be  able  to  assure  you,  that  it  affords  decisive  evidence  of  the  low 
state  of  intolerance.  I  have  read  this  list,  and,  after  the  most 
minute  inquiry,  added  to  my  own  knowledge  in  this  city,  it  does 
appear  to  me  that  there  are  not  twenty  names  to  this  petition 
of   persons   of  fortune    and    independence  of  mind,    who   signed    ii 


290  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

from  mere  motives  of  conscientious  bigotry.  This  class  of  persons 
are  certainly  to  be  treated  with  the  most  respectful  deference  ;  they 
labour  under  a  mistake,  but  they  act  from  pure  intentions,  and 
I  respect  whilst  I  pity  them.  They  had  an  undoubted  right  to 
petition  against  conceding,  upon  any  terms,  any  thing  to  the  papists ; 
they  had  a  clear  right  to  pray  the  legislature  to  continue  to  be 
indiscriminate  in  laying  on  the  burdens  of  the  state,  but  partial  in 
conferring  its  benefits.  I  admit  their  perfect  right  to  sign  this 
petition,  and  I  request  it  may  be  understood,  that  I  am  incapable  of 
applying  any  harsh  expression  to  them,  as  I  certainly  also  am 
of  feeling  any  resentment  against  them.  But,  undoubtedly,  in  the 
number  of  twenty,  I  have  given  abundant  room  for  the  uninfluenced 
signatures. 

"  I  blush  to  tell  you  that  this  list  contains  three  or  four  of 
the  Irish  bar.  (Hear,  hear.)  I  am  ashamed  to  say  that  there  are  so 
many  certainly  as  three — I  fear  four.  The  Irish  people,  long 
accustomed  to  find  in  the  Irish  bar  the  friends  of  every  freedom, 
will  hear  it  with  astonishment,  notwithstanding  the  acrimony,  the 
native  and  the  imported  acrimony,  towards  the  Catholics,  cherished 
by  the  head  of  the  law  department.  It  will  scarcely  be  believed 
that  our  profession,  proudly  distinguished,  as  it  formerly  was, 
for  liberality  and  love  of  country,  has  so  fallen  as  to  afford  even 
three  signatures  to  an  anti-Catholic  petition.  I  regret,  from  my 
soul,  the  discovery.  (Hear,  hear.) 

"  The  number  of  clergymen  of  the  Established  Church  who  signed 
this  petition  is,  I  am  happy  to  say,  few  ;  nor,  when  we  recollect  what 
excellent  and  accomplished  gentlemen  those  clergymen  in  general 
are,  will  it  excite  any  surprise  in  the  minds  of  the  bigots  of  any  sect, 
that  the  number  of  their  signatures  should  be  few.  Of  attorneys, 
there  are,  at  least,  eight  or  ten — I  expected  to  find  twice  the  number  j 
of  placemen,  there  are  many  ;  of  pensioners,  several ;  many  from  the 
offices  of  the  castle ;  many  from  the  police  offices  ;  several  from  the 
custom-house  :  almost  all  the  hired  constables  ;  the  judge,  the  re- 
gistrar, and  the  proctors  of  the  prerogative  court,  and  as  many  of 
the  wretched  watchmen  of  Dublin  as  are,  or  pretended  to  be,  Pro- 
testants ;  there  has  been  so  much  liberality  exercised,  as  to  admit 
poor  papists  to  the  dignity  of  the  nightly  watch.  (A  laugh.)  To 
these  are  to  be  added  the  '  tag,  rag,  and  bob-tail'  of  the  corpora- 
tion— numbers  of  those  who  hold  its  principal  stations — all  those  who 
hold  its  lower  offices,  and  are  appointed  and  removeable  at  pleasure. 
Add  to  these,  writing  clerks,  dependents,   and  a  small,  but  hungry 


DANIEL    OCONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  291 

group  of  expectants,  and  you  have  the  entire  catalogue  of  genuine 
signatures. 

"  But  there  will  remain  near  two  thousand  signatures  to  be  still 
accounted  for — near  two  thousand  signatures  will  remain,  for  whom 
no  owner  can  be  found.     (Hear,  hear.)     Of  those  there  are  some 
hundreds  which  purport  to  belong  to  individuals  who  have   indig- 
nantly disclaimed  them.     There  are,    in    short,    some  hundreds  of 
forgeries.     (Hear,  hear.)     Need  we  give  a  more  striking  instance 
than  that  of  Mr.  Stephens  ?     He  discovered  that  his  name  had  been 
forged  to   this  petition,  and  immediately  wrote   to   the    Mayor,  to 
inform  him  of  the  circumstance  ;  the  Mayor  did  not  condescend  to 
give  any  reply,  but  took  the  known  forgery  to  England,  and  pre- 
sented it  to  the  House  as  genuine.     (Hear,  hear.)     When  forgery 
was  exhausted,  mere  fiction  was  resorted  to.     There  was  danger  in 
giving  names  which,  being  in  common  use,  might  be  disavowed  by 
individuals    bearing    them.     The    fabricators    of    this    petition    set 
disavowal  at  defiance  ;  they  produced  names  which    no   man   ever 
bore    or  will    bear — (Hear,  hear)  ;  they    invented   John   Hedpath, 
and  coupled  him  with  John  Ridpath — they  attached  James  Ridpath 
to  James  Ridpath  ;  they  united  the  noble  families  of  the  Feddlies  to 
the  illusti-ious  race  of  Fiddlies  ;  they  created  the  Jonneybones,  and 
added  the  M'Coobens  to  the  Muldongs  ;  to  the  uncleanly  Rottons  is 
annexed  the  musical  name  of  Navasora — the  Sours  and  the  Soars — 
the  Dandys  and  the  Feakens — the  Gilbasleys  and  the  Werrillas — 
five  Ladds  and  five  Palks — the  Leups  and  the  Zealthams — the  Huzies 
and  the  Hozies — the  Sparlings  and  the  Sporlings — the  Fitzgetts  and 
the  Fibgetts — the  Hoffins  and  the  Phantons,  and  the  Giritrows,  and 
the  Hockleys  and  Breakleys,  the  Russinghams,  and  the  Favuses,  and 
the    Sellhews,  and  the   Mogratts  and  Calyells — all,  poor  innocents, 
are  made  to  combine  against  us,  and  to  chime  with  the  Pithams  and 
Paddams — the  Chimnicks,   and   Rimnicks,   and   Clumnicks,  and   the 
Rowings  and  Riotters  ;  they  threw  in  the  vulgar  Bawns,  and  after  a 
multitude  of  fantastic  denominations,  they  concluded  with  Zachariah 
Diamond.     (Great  laughter.) 

"  In  short,  a  more  tasteless  group  of  imaginary  beings  was 
never  conjured  up  by  the  delusions  of  magic.  To  the  tune  of 
'  Johnny  Armstrong,'. — they  gave  us  five-and-twenty  Armstrongs,  and 
placed  eighteen  Taylors  on  the  list — it  ought  to  have  been  '  four- 
and-twenty  tailors  all  in  a  row ;'  there  would  have  been  some  pleasantry 
in  it.  In  short,  by  these  means,  by  the  force  of  mere  invention, 
upwards   of  one  thousand   names   have   been  added  to  this  petition, 


292  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

and  one  thousand  children  of  the  brain  of  those  worthy  managers  of 
intolerance  appeared  in  formidable  array  against  us,  at  the  bar  of 
the  House  of  Commons,  covered  with  the  mantle  of  the  Mayor  for 
swaddling  clothes.     (Laughter.) 

"  It  is  incumbent  on  us  to  bring  these  facts  before  the  public  and 
the  legislature ;  we  owe  it  to  ourselves  and  to  our  children,  to  get 
rid  of  an  obstacle  to  our  liberty  and  theirs  ;  we  owe  it  to  the 
legislature  to  detect  the  imposition  which  has  been  practised  upon 
them  ;  and  chietly  it  is  due  to  the  liberal  Protestants  of  Ireland  to 
rescue  the  Protestant  name  from  this  additional  imputation  of 
bigotry,  which  their  enemies,  no  less  than  ours,  would  cast  upon  it. 
(Hear,  hear.) 

"  There  is,  too,  another  motive  which,  I  confess,  influences  me 
powerfully.  The  very  men  who  have  been  guilty  of  those  base 
forgeries  have,  in  a  recent  instance,  foully  tarnished  the  Irish 
character ;  an  innocent  person  was  accused — an  innocent  female  was 
accused — perjury  the  most  foul — subornation  the  plainest  and  most 
palpable,  were  used  against  her  life,  and,  still  more,  against  her 
honour.  We,  Irish,  often  feel  (it  is  part  of  the  real  character  of 
Irishmen)  pity  for  the  accused,  it  is  said,  even  for  the  guilty  ;  but 
accused  innocence  excites  our  warmest  sympathies ;  but  when 
female  innocence  stood  accused,  I  thought  for  the  honour  of  my 
country.  I  thought  that,  without  any  poetical  fiction,  thousands  of 
Irish  swords  would  start  from  their  scabbards,  and  that  the  wretch 
would  be  driven  from  society  who  checked  our  manly,  our  virtuous 
indignation.  But  a  set  of  beings,  I  will  not  call  them  men,  have 
been  found,  who,  under  the  auspices  of  the  persecuting  Castle,  the 
pious  and  no-popery  forgerers  have  been  found  to  refuse  the  poor 
and  pitiful  tribute  of  their  approbation  to  exalted  virtue  and  dignified 
purity,  escaped  from  calumny,  from  subornation  of  perjury.  These 
loyalists — these  creatures  who  call  themselves  exclusively  loyal, 
because  they  are  the  ready  sycophants  of  every  tool  of  powei- — 
(Hear,  hear) — these  exemplary  loyalists,  have  refused  to  address 
the  niece  and  the  daughter-in-law  of  their  King — the  wife  of  the 
Regent — their  future  Queen — (Hear,  hear) — the  mother  of  their 
future  Sovereign,  though  the  triumph  which  her  imassisted  innocence 
obtained  over  the  vilest  conspiracy  ever  disclosed,  powerfully  de- 
manded the  expression  of  congratulation. 

"  And  what  excuse  did  they  give  for  this  refusal  ?  Why,  they 
scorned  all  mockeiy  and  delusion,  and  insisted  that  to  address  the 
Princess  was  to  insult  the  Prince  ;  and  would  the  Prince  feel  insulted 


DANIEL    o'CONNELL,    ESQ.,  M.P.  293 

at  such  an  address  ?  I  should  hope  two  things  of  him — first,  that  he 
means,  hereafter,  to  redeem  the  pledge  he  so  often  repeated  to  the 
Irish  Catholics  (Hear,  hear) ;  and,  secondly,  that  he  does  not  feel 
insulted  when  the  triumph  of  the  Princess  over  her  perjured  and  her 
suborned  traducers  is  celebrated.     (Hear,  hear.) 

"  But  who  are  the  men  who  have  refused  to  addi-ess  her  Royal 
Highness  ?  Who  are  they  who  have  no  sense  of  justice — no  abhor- 
rence of  calumny — no  enthusiasm  in  defence  of  female  innocence  ? 
They  are  our  enemies  ;  they  are  the  fabi-icators  of  every  falsehood, 
and  of  every  forgery  that  could  injure  or  impede  our  cause;  they 
are  men  who  degrade  the  Irish  name — the  character  of  manhood. 
(Hear.)  We  are  bound  by  every  consideration  dear  to  men,  and 
sacred  to  Irishmen,  to  expose  to  the  emijii'e  those  wretches — to  show 
them  as  they  are — poor,  paltiy,  and  profligate — the  ready  slaves  of 
every  secretary — secretary's  clerk.  We  are  bound  to  show  the 
British  empire  that  it  was  not  the  Irish — not  the  mercantile  inha- 
bitants of  Dublin — but  the  dregs  of  the  fabricators  of  its  frauds  and 
its  forgeries,  that  could  refuse,  under  the  pretext  of  not  wishing  to 
displease  the  Prince,  an  address  of  congratulation  to  his  once 
persecuted,  but  now  triumphant  consort.     (Hear,  hear.) 

"  In  short,  I  desire  to  succeed  in  my  present  motion,  for  this  first 
and  principal  reason,  that  the  meanness  of  the  open  enemies  of  the 
Princess  amongst  us,  and  of  their  titled  and  legal  instigators  and 
prompters,  may  be  put  on  record  for  ever.  That  wiU  be  done  by 
bringing  the  question  of  those  forgeries  and  fictitious  signatures 
before  the  House  of  Commons.  (Hear,  hear.)  To  impose  upon  that 
House  is,  I  presume,  a  breach  of  its  privileges.  (Hear.)  Let  us 
demand  inquiry  and  investigation.  Our  assertion  will  be,  that  two- 
thirds  of  the  signatures  to  this  petition  were  forged,  or  simply 
fictitious  ;  but  we  will  not  require  an  assertion  to  be  credited  without 
proof;  we  will  challenge  inquiry  ;  we  will  show  five  hundred  names 
without  an  owner  (Hear) ;  and  we  will  then  point  out  the  fabricators 
of  this  mean  and  dishonourable  scheme  to  retard  the  progress  of 
Emancipation. 

"  If  we  are  mistaken,  our  enemies  can  easily  confute  us  ;  they  have 
only  to  produce  the  individual.  Mr.  Riotter  may  head  their  party. 
I  should  be  glad  to  see  the  gentleman.  If  he  does  not  live  in  the 
city,  this  Riotter,  I  presume  he  is  to  be  found  in  the  liberties. 
After  him  our  enemies  can  show  off  Mr.  Wevilla,  hand  in  hand  with 
Mr.  Navisora,  and  Johnny  Bones,  Esq.,  may  appear  with  Fibgetts, 


294  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

gent.,  and  even  Mr.  Knowing  can  be  summoned  to  come  forward  in 
company  with  Mr.  Dandy.     (Cheers  and  laughter.) 

"But  why  should  I  fatigue  you  with  the  ridiculous  catalogue.  If 
those  men  exist — pardon  my  supposition — if  they  exist,  they  live  for 
our  enemies  ;  if  they  do  not  exist,  then  what  is  to  become,  in  public 
estimation,  of  those  our  enemies — of  those  worthy  allies  of  the 
traducers  of  her  Royal  Highness  ?  Perhaps  their  spirit  of  loyalty 
may  save  them  in  parliament  from  punishment,  but  their  fraud 
and  forgery  will  consign  them  to  the  execration  and  contempt  of 
posterity. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  concluded,  amid  great  cheering,  by  moving  the 
following  resolution : — 

"  •  Kesolved — That  a  sub- committee  of  twenty-one  members  be  appointed  to 
take  into  consideration  the  most  proper  metliod  of  investigating,  and  respectfully 
submitting  to  parliament,  the  alleged  forged  and  fictitious  signatures  to  the 
petition  against  the  Catholic  claims,  to  the  House  of  Commons,  by  the  Lord 
Mayor  of  Dublin.' 

"  Major  Bryan  seconded  Mr.  O'Connell's  resolution,  which  was 
agreed  to  unanimously. 

"  The  following  are  the  names  of  the  gentlemen  who  compose  the 
committee : — 

Mr.  Finn,  Mr.  Cox, 

Mr.  H,  E.  Taafle,  Mr.  T.  Dillon, 

Mr.  N.  Mahon,  Mr.  Wade, 

Mr.  Lynch,  Mr.  R.  O'Gormau, 

Mr.  P.  O'Gorman,  Mr.  R.  O'Brien, 

Mr.  Doyle,  Dr.  Dromgoole, 

Mr.  Eooney,  Major  G.  Bryan, 

Mr.  Lyons,  Mr.  T.  IQrwan, 

Mr.  Murphy,  Mr.  O'Connell, 

Mr.  Fitzsimon,  Mr.  Scully, 

Mr.  Costigan,  Mr.  Weldon. 
Mr.  Coyle, 

' '  '  Resolved — That  the  committee  be  directed  to  request  the  aid  of  such  of 
our  Protestant  brethren  as  may  be  pleased  to  assist  in  accomplishing  the  object 
of  their  report.'  " 

The  Catholic  meetings  of  this  year,  in  the  counties  of  Ireland, 
renewed  the  expressions  of  contidence  in  Mr.  O'Connell  with 
which  he  had  been  favoured  in  the  preceding.  Among  several, 
we  copy  the  following  : 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  295 

"  COUNTY  GALWAY  MEETING. 

"County  Hall,  Galway,  Sunday,  Aiiril  .5,  18K?. 

"  Moved  by  Lord  Ffrench,  and  carried  by  acclamation — 

"  '  That  the  thanks  of  this  meeting  are  justly  due,  and  are  hereby  given,  to 
Daniel  O'Connell,  Esq.,  for  the  luauly,  great,  and  unceasing  exertion  of  his 
higli  talent  in  the  support  of  everything  dear  to  Catholic  character  :  as  well  as 
for  the  use  he  loyally  and  honourably  makes  of  every  meaus  to  promote 
Catholic  Emancipation.' " 

The  question  of  the  "  securities,"  as  they  were  called,  with 
which  the  pending  bill  for  relief  of  the  Catholic  disabilities  was 
clogged,  increased  momentarily  in  interest  during  the  month  of 
May.  The  strongest  feeling  against  them  had  arisen  in  the 
popular  mind ;  and  the  great  anxiety  was,  to  know  what  would 
be  the  decision  of  the  CathoUc  Prelates,  who  were  expected  to 
arrive  in  Dublin,  for  consultation,  towards  the  end  of  the 
month. 

Meanwhile,  symptoms  of  division  began  to  appear  among  the 
laymen  at  the  Catholic  Board.  The  nature  of  it  will  be  best 
conveved  in  the  extracts  we  subjoin  from  speeches  at  a  meeting 
of  the  board  on  the  22nd  of  May. 

"CATHOLIC  BOARD, 

"  Stationers'  Hall,  Saturday,  May  22. 
'*  Right  Hon.  Lord  Trimleston  in  the  chair, 

"After  a  motion  of  Mr.  O'Gorman's,  declaring  that  the  Catholics 
put  no  belief  in  a  calumny  circulated  against  the  Messrs.  G  uinness, 
brewers,  to  the  effect  that  they  had  signed  the  no-Popery  petition  of 
the  Dublin  Corporation, 

"  Mi\  Bagot  rose  to  move  as  follows : — 

"  'That  iu  the  proceedings  which  took  place  at  the  Catholic  Board,  upon 
Saturday,  the  1st  of  May,  instant,  no  motion  was  entertained  relative  to  the 
Catholic  ijill  now  pending  in  imrliament :  nor  was  any  resolution  adopted  that 
could  be  interpreted  to  convey  the  sense  of  the  board  thereupon.'  " 

The  meetino^  to  which  Mr.  Baofot  thus  adverted  was  one  con- 
es o 

ducted  with  closed  doors — so  far  as  the  reporters  of  the  public 
press  were  concerned — "  a  wish  having  been  expressed," 
according  to  the  Dublin  Evening/  Fast  of  May  4,  "  by  some  of 


296  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

the  speakers,  that  (in  the  then  stage  of  the  bill)  nothing  should 
emanate  from  the  board  that  could  possibly,  by  verbal  in- 
accuracy, be  perverted  by  any  adversary,  or  mistaken  by  a 
friend." 

The  Evening  Post,  however,  added  : — "  Without  infringing 
on  the  delicacy  manifested  by  individual  members,  we  feel 
ourselves  at  liberty  (and,  indeed,  bound  by  a  public  duty)  to 
disclose  the  substance  of  these  proceedings." 

And,  accordingly,  it  gave  a  summary  of  the  proceedings  ; 
which,  as  having  been  furnished  by  Mr.  O'Connell,  we  here 
insert : 

"  The  ecclesiastical  provisions  of  this  bill,  or  proposed  securities, 
formed  no  part  of  the  discussion — directly  or  indirectly.  From  this 
branch  of  the  subject,  every  member  of  the  board  scrupulously 
abstained ;  leaving  it,  where,  it  may  be  safely  confided,  in  the  hands 
of  the  Catholic  hierarchy. 

"But,  with  respect  to  the  civil  enactments  of  the  proposed  bill — 
those  which  profess  to  grant  to  the  Catholic  body  a  complete  emanci- 
pation, and  to  effect  the  declared  purpose  of  parliament  by  a  final 
adjustment,  and  by  burying  all  religious  jealousies  in  oblivion — this 
subject  was  treated  with  equal  freedom  and  acuteness. 

"  First — It  was  observed,  and  with  regi-et,  that  although  the 
Catholics  have  latterly  petitioned  the  legislature  for  religious  freedom, 
upon  the  enlarged  basis  of  justice  and  universal  liberty  of  con- 
science, praying  relief  equally  for  all  classes  of  Dissenters  as  for 
themselves,  yet  the  proposed  bill  is  narrowed  in  its  principle  to  the 
relief  of  the  Catholics  alone,  which  is  the  more  to  be  regretted, 
because  the  Dissenters,  by  their  uniform  liberality  and  recent  aid 
afforded  to  the  Catholic  petitions,  had  acquired  weighty  claims 
upon  the  gratitude  and  co-operation  of  the  Catholic  body ;  and  it 
was  therefore  desired  to  be  understood,  now,  as  heretofore,  to  be  the 
wish  of  the  Catholics  to  have  all  other  Dissenters  comprehended  in 
the  like  relief  with  themselves. 

"  Second — But  even  though  the  framers  of  the  bill  should  (contrary 
to  the  wish  of  the  Catholics)  adopt  the  less-comprehensive  principle, 
yet  the  proposed  bill  does  not  go  the  length  of  complete  religious 
freedom,  even  for  the  Catholics  themselves.  It  had  long  been  under- 
stood that  (whenever  the  necessary  ecclesiastical  securities  should  be 
devised)  no  difficulty  could  remain  in  the  way  of  the  complete  civil 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  297 

emancipation  of  the  Catholic  body.  There  was  to  be  a  final  adjust' 
merit  that  should  leave  no  grievance  unredressed,  no  ground  for 
future  petition.  The  account  of  oppression  was  to  be  finally  closed 
by  a  simple  Repeal.  So  it  has  been  all  along  expected,  not  merely 
by  the  Catholics  but  by  the  Protestants.  Even  the  loudest  of  the 
opponents  objected  to  relief,  not  so  much  because  exclusion  ought  to 
remain  as  because  security  was  not  provided ;  so,  too,  in  the  preamble 
of  the  bill  under  discussion. 

"  But  here  is  ample  security  provided,  and  yet  ample  redress  is 
not  provided. 

"  These  ought  to  be  co-extensive  ;  they  are  not  so.  The  bill  is 
only  for  a  partial  Repeal.  True,  it  restores  much,  but  it  leaves 
much.  This  cannot  be  the  intention  of  the  liberal  and  enlightened 
members  of  the  committee  ;  but,  pi'obably,  is  owing  to  some  unskilful- 
ness  of  the  lawyers  they  have  employed,  probably  not  much 
acquainted  with  the  laws  or  interests  of  Ireland. 

"  Amendment  in  this  particular  should  be  provided,  and  defects 
pointed  out,  if  not  now  too  late  for  interference. 

"  Third — The  frame  of  the  bill  appeared  objectionable.  It  pro- 
fesses to  relieve  the  Catholics  from  certain  specified  penal  statutes ; 
yet  it  does  not,  in  the  accustomed  technical  form,  repeal  those  statutes 
by  express  name  or  recital,  but  by  general  words,  which  may  here- 
after receive  a  harsh  interpretation.  Of  this  Dr.  Duigenan's  court 
has  afibrded  an  instance  ! 

"  Fourth — the  language  of  the  bill,  too,  appeared  inadequate  to 
the  intended  objects.  Of  this  inadequacy  many  instances  were 
adduced,  and  excited  a  general  surprise  amongst  the  members. 

"Fifth — It  was  observed,  that  the  oath  contained  in  the  proposed 
bill  contains  (in  addition  to  the  entire  of  the  present  oaths)  certain 
new  phrases,  which  have  not  been  suflSciently  considered  by  the 
Catholics,  or  even  offered  or  known  by  them. 

"  Sixth — That  there  is  a  blunder  in  more  than  one  passage  of  the 
bill,  where  it  adverts  to  a  declaration  against  transubstantiation  ;  and 
also  to  a  declaration  against  the  invocation  of  saints ;  whereas,  in 
fact,  there  is  only  one  declaration. 

"  Seventh — That  the  clause  relative  to  the  elective  franchise  is 
become  now  quite  unnecessary  for  the  Irish  Catholics,  and  must 
have  been  penned  without  acquaintance  with  the  Election  Code  of 
Ireland. 

"  Eighth — That  the  exception  of  the  olHces  of  Chancellor  of  Eng- 


298  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

land,  and  Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ireland  (though  but  two  in  number), 
appears  to  be  founded  upon  a  principle  of  exclusion,  which  the 
Catholic  body  cannot,  as  good  and  deserving  citizens,  be  expected 
even  to  recognize. 

"  Ninth — That  the  enactment  for  admission  into  corporations  keeps 
the  Catholics,  practically,  still  excluded ;  as  it  leaves  them  at  the 
mercy  of  present  and  future  by-laws  of  exclusion  ;  omits  the  words 
'  charter  or  by  law  ;'  employs  only  the  vague  and  disputable  term 
'  members  of  a  corporation,'  instead  of  the  legal  names  of  the  corporate 
officers  ;  provides  no  redress  in  case  of  refusal  to  admit  freemen  ; 
and,  finally,  leaves  the  offices  of  directors  of  the  Bank  of  Ireland,  for 
instance,  still  closed  against  Catholic  wealth  and  probity. 

<'  Tenth — That,  by  continuing  the  exclusion  from  the  universities, 
and  from  even  the  lay-fellowships  and  offices  therein,  it  denies  to  the 
Catholic  body  all  participation  of  the  benefits  of  education  to  be 
enjoyed  in  those  highly-endowed  establishments. 

"  Eleventh — That  this  same  clause,  by  its  operation,  disables 
Catholics  from  the  higher  offices  of  the  law :  as  those  of  judges, 
masters  in  chancery,  &c. 

"  Twelfth — It  leaves  the  Catholic  peers  of  Ireland  still  incapable 
of  voting  at  the  election  of  any  representative  peer  of  Ireland. 

"  This  is  another  proof  of  unskilfulness  in  the  framer  of  the  bill;  for 
the  committee  could  not  have  designedly  continued  this  disability. 

"  Thirteenth — It  leaves  the  Catholics  still  a  prey  to  the  pillage  of 
church  rates,  vestry  cesses,  &c.,  so  grievously  felt  by  the  farmers, 
cottiers,  and  peasantry  of  Ireland. 

"  It  was  thought  needless  to  remark  on  the  importance  of  this 
omission. 

"  Fourteenth — It  still  subjects  them  to  the  long  oaths  imposed  by 
Dr.  Duigenan's  presentment  in  1793.  And  no  Catholic  is  to  acquire, 
enjoy,  or  transmit  any  freehold  property  ;  to  be  a  guardian,  &c. ;  or 
scarcely  to  exist  in  civil  life  without  publicly  taking  and  subscribing 
these  oaths. 

"  This  hardship,  it  was  observed,  was  most  galling,  and  personally 
inconvenient  in  many  instances. 

"  Fifteenth — Many  other  omissions,  doubtful  phrases,  and  imper- 
fections were  commented  upon. 

"  It  appeared  to  be  the  general  sense  of  this  enlightened  meeting 
that,  however  upright  the  views  and  estimable  the  characters  of  the 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  299 

members  of  the  committee  may  be  (and  this  was  fully  acknowledged), 
they  had  produced  a  bill  which  was  in  its  principle  restricted,  in  its 
frame  unnecessarily  doubtful,  and  in  its  provisions  inadequate  to  that 
full  relief  which  has  been  expected  by  the  public  of  all  classes,  and 
was  apparently  intended  by  the  parliament,  and  probably  by  the 
committee  itself. 

"  During  this  long  and  arduous  discussion,  of  which  we  can,  of 
course,  present  but  a  faint  outline,  not  one  single  sentiment  of  dis- 
respect towards  any  individual  of  the  committee  who  prepared  this 
bill,  was  offered  to  the  board. 

"  On  the  contrary,  their  intentions  were  admitted  to  be  as  sincere 
as  their  views  were  liberal,  and  there  appeared  to  exist  no  doubt  at 
the  board,  but  the  imperfections  of  this  bill  would  yet  be  removed  if 
any  opportunity  should  remain. 

"  Under  all  these  circumstances,  the  board  felt  the  propriety  of 
nominating  additional  delegates,  who  should  repair  to  London 
directly,  and  attend  to  the  progress  of  the  bill. 

*'  Mr.  O'Connell's  motion  for  the  immediate  departure  of  the  dele- 
gates, previously  appointed,  having  passed  unanimously,  that  gentle- 
man moved  next — 

' '  '  That  the  additional  delegates  should  be — 

Sir  Edward  Bellew, 
Major  Bryan, 
Mr.  Bagot, 
Mr.  Scully.' 

"  These  gentlemen,  with  the  addition  of  Mr.  O'Connell,  were,  on 
ballot,  unanimously  elected. 

"MONDAY,  MAY  3. 

"  We  observed  this  day,  and  with  deep  regret,  a  striking  instance 
of  the  mischievous  operation  of  the  recent  resolution  (carried  during 
the  recess),  requiring  that  the  number  of  thirty  should  be  present 
before  the  chair  could  be  taken. 

"The  Earl  of  Fingal,  Lord  KiUeen,  Sir  Edward  Bellew,  and 
several  other  gentlemen  appeared  in  the  rooms,  at  a  little  after  two 
o'clock.  The  secretary,  Mr.  Finn,  attended,  and  produced  a  letter 
received  from  Mr.  Hay,  accompanying  a  compared  copy  of  the 
Catholic  bill.     This  important  document  excited  general  attention 


300  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

aud  interest;  yet  no  business  could  be  done — no  chair  could  be  taken, 
because  only  twenty-eight  members  could  be  counted ! ! 

"  At  length,  by  sending  expressly  for  two  mercantile  gentlemen 
from  'Change,  the  magical  number  was  procured,  but  not  until  a 
quarter  past  four  o'clock  ! 

"At  this  hour  the  Earl  of  Fingal  was  called  to  the  chair. 

"  The  bill  was  read  distinctly,  and  appeared  to  correspond  with  the 
detail  already  given.  Many  of  the  former  observations  were  repeated 
and  corroborated. 

"  It  appeared  to  be  the  general  wish  and  understanding  of  the 
board,  that  Messrs.  Scully  and  O'Connell  should  professionally  take 
the  bill  into  their  consideration,  and  report  their  opinions  upon  it. 
However,  no  formal  resolution  to  this  etfect  was  proposed,  on  account 
of  the  standing  order,  which  required  a  week's  notice  of  every 
motion. 

"  Other  motions  proposed  were  met  by  the  same  impediment ;  but 
it  is  probable  that  some  effective  proceedings  will  take  place  at  the 
adjourned  meeting  next  Saturday. 

"  At  the  present  crisis,  the  Catholic  Board  and  its  proceedings 
must  fix  every  eye,  and  command  the  earnest  and  primary  attention 
of  the  Irish  people." 

Such  was  the  publication  which  excited  Mr.  Bagot  to  make 
the  motion  he  did,  at  the  meeting  of  the  22nd  May,  and  he  was 
not  without  many  supporters  amongst  those  who  either  did  not 
really  understand  the  delusive  and  insulting  nature  of  the 
bill,  or  who,  for  private  motives,  were  not  unwilling  that  it 
should  pass  "  with  all  its  imperfections  on  its  head." 

Mr.  Bagot  contended,  that  though  opinions  had  certainly 
been  expressed  on  the  bill,  during  the  meeting  alluded  to  in  his 
resolution — viz.,  that  of  the  1st  of  May,  yet  that  no  express 
declaration  of  the  sentiments  of  the  board  on  the  subject  had 
been  there  come  to. 

Mr.  Scully  agreed  that  this  was  the  case  so  far  as  that  no 
formally-worded  motion  had  passed  in  condemnation  of  the  bill, 
but  argued  that  the  weight  of  opinion  against  it  had  been 
evidenced ;  and  that  the  motions  which  passed  unanimously  on 
the  day  mentioned,  for  the  immediate  departure,  to  London,  of 
the  delegates  previously  appointed,  and  for  an  addition  of  live 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  301 

to  their  numbers,  did  so  pass,  because  of  the  condemnation  of 
the  bill  by  the  board ;  and  were,  therefore,  to  be  considered, 
and  had  been  considered,  as  decisive  proofs  of  that  condemna- 
tion. 

Mr.  Byrne  having  expressed  some  approval  of  Mr.  Bagot's 
motion,  and  Dr.  Sheridan  having  spoken  to  the  contrary 
effect — 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  rose  and  said,  he  hoped  the  object  of  the  present 
motion  would  be  distinctly  understood  and  fairly  canvassed.  For  his 
own  part,  he  was  resolved  not  to  leave  any  doubt  respecting  his 
view  of  the  subject,  or  the  grounds  of  his  opposition. 

"  It  had  been  called  by  Mr.  Byrne  '  a  motion  of  conciliation  and 
harmony.'  It  struck  him  to  be  a  motion  of  censure  and  dissension. 
It  ran  in  these  words : 

"  '  That  on  Saturday,  the  1st  of  May  last,  no  motion  was  entertained  by  the 
board,  relative  to  the  Catholic  bill,  nor  any  resolution  adopted.' 

"  With  respect  to  the  first  part  of  this  motion,  it  contains  an  assertion 
which  I  most  distinctly  deny.  The  Catholic  board  did  entertain  a 
motion  on  that  day,  relative  to  the  Catholic  bill.  I  myself  made 
a  motion  that  day  relative  to  the  Catholic  bill,  and  it  was  discussed 
at  great  length.  I  moved  for  an  additional  delegation  to  attend 
to  the  progress  of  the  Catholic  bill  through  the  House — ^to  suggest  to 
our  parliamentary  friends  omissions  in  the  principle  of  the  bill — 
alterations  in  the  frame  of  the  bill — additions  in  the  detail  of  the 
bill.  This,  my  motion,  which  related  to  the  Catholic  bill,  and  to 
nothing  else,  was  supported  by  me  on  the  grounds  of  the  manifest 
and  manifold  imperfections  and  deficiencies  in  this  bill ;  that  motion 
was  entertained  and  was  acceded  to  upon  the  very  Saturday,  the 
1st  of  May,  181.^,  on  which  the  board  is  now  called  upon  to  declare 
that  no  such  motion  was  entertained.  (Hear,  hear.) 

"  And  why  is  this  plain  and  direct  departure  from  the  fact 
pressed  upon  us  ?  Because,  indeed,  one  of  our  newspapers,  the 
Dublin  Evening  Post,  has  given  offence,  it  seems,  to  the  de- 
licacy of  some  of  our  members.  And  it  is  sought  thus  to  impute 
falsehood  to  its  report  of  the  proceedings  of  that  day.  But  that 
paper  is  too  valuable — too  precious  to  the  Irish  people,  whose 
champion  and  whose  protector  from  oppression  it  has  ever  been, 
to  be  abandoned  to  any  censure  however  undeserved.  (Hear,  hear.) 


302  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

"  No,  my  lord,  we  will  never  forget — ^the  independent  Catholics 
of  Ireland  will  never  forget,  that  if  money  could  purchase  or  autho- 
rity influence,  or  power  intimidate  the  proprietor  of  that  paper, 
he  would  long  since  have  joined  the  vile  slaves  of  the  vile  press  of 
our  vile  oppressors.  (Cheers.)  But  it  is  not  out  of  gratitude  to  him 
that  I  demand  the  rejection  of  the  present  motion  ;  it  is  simply  from 
an  adherence  to  plain  matter  of  fact,  that  it  will,  and  I  venture 
to  say,  must  be  rejected.  (Hear,  hear.) 

"  It  will  be  rejected,  because  the  mover  laboured  under  an  entire 
misapprehension  of  the  fact,  when  he  drew  it  up.  It  will  be  rejected, 
because  it  implies  an  unfounded  and  unmerited  censure  on  the  report 
published  by  the  Dublin  Evening  Post.  The  motion  implies  the 
inaccuracy  of  that  report.  I  assert  its  perfect  accuracy.  I  pledge 
myself  to  the  Catholic  board  and  to  the  people  of  Ireland,  for 
its  entire,  perfect,  and  indisputable  accuracy.  (Loud  cries  of  hear, 
hear.)  That  report  purported  to  give  a  summary  of  the  objections 
made  on  the  day  in  question,  Saturday,  the  1st  of  May,  to  the 
Catholic  bill.  It  did  not  include  one  expression  in  that  summary, 
but  what  had  distinctly  fallen  either  from  me,  or  had  been  much 
better  expressed  by  my  friend  Mr.  Scully.  We  had  seen  the 
draft  of  the  bill  that  morning.  Our  professional  pursuits  and 
habits  gave  to  us,  of  course,  a  greater  facility  than  others  pos- 
sessed, to  form  a  judgment  of  it;  and  we  felt  it  our  duty  to 
express  to  the  Catholic  board  those  objections,  which  the  Dublin 
Evening  Post  has  since  given  to  the  public. 

"  I  do,  therefore,  avow,  and  take  upon  myself  the  entire  responsibility 
of  that  summary  of  objections  to  the  Catholic  bill.  I  appeal  to  all 
those  who  were  present  on  that  day,  to  confirm  my  statement ;  and 
I  commit  my  most  solemn  pledge  of  veracity  to  those  who  were 
absent,  for  the  truth  of  the  report  which  this  motion  seeks — covertly 
seeks  to  censure. 

*'  [Here  Mr.  Bagot  interrupted  Mr.  O'Connell,  by  declaring  that 
he  did  not  intend  '  any  censure,  nor  a  contradiction  of  that  report.' 
That  his  object  was  merely  '  to  have  it  understood  in  England 
that  no  resolution  had  been  as  yet  adopted  by  the  Catholic  board 
respecting  this  bill.'] 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  resumed  by  expressing  his  satisfaction  at  the 
explanation  that  no  censui'e  had  been  intended. 

"  My  object  (continued  he)  is  no  other  at  present,  than  to  re- 
sist that  of  the  motion  which  is  contradictory  of  the  fact;  and  it  seems 
to  impute  falsehood   to  a  report    warranted   by  the  plainest  truth, 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,     M.P.  303 

and  now  declared  unimpeachable  by  the  respected  gentleman  himself. 
Let  the  motion  be  so  shaped  as  to  correspond  with  his  disclaimer  of 
censure  and  contradiction.  I  am  sure  the  gentleman  is  entirely  inca- 
pable of  any  the  slightest  approach  to  a  deviation  from  the  strict 
truth  ;  and  I  was  convinced  that  he  would  be  the  first  to  abandon 
any  proposition  which  could,  by  any  possibility,  imply  a  contradiction 
of  that  which  really  did  occur.  If  his  motion  can  be  shown  to  have 
been  rendered  necessary  by  the  existence,  or  by  the  reported 
existence  of  any  heats  or  animosities,  it  should  have  my  decided 
support.  But  were  it  to  be  taken,  as  intended,  to  be  a  means  of 
impugning  the  opinions  of  those  individuals,  whose  affections  for 
their  country  and  their  cause  had  prompted  them  to  express  their 
opinions  freely  upon  the  new  bill,  or  Avhat  has,  I  am  glad  to  say, 
been  denied,  a  means  of  impugning  the  newspaper  report,  and 
obtaining  a  petty  triumph  over  a  newspaper  writer,  it  should  have  my 
most  decided  opposition.  I  am  ready,  if  he  choose,  to  accede  to  a 
motion  shaped  according  to  what  was  fair  and  open.  Although 
I  do  not  see  the  necessity  for  any  such  motion,  yet  if  the  respected 
gentleman,  who  has  raised  this  discussion,  will  leave  out  all  mention  of 
Saturday,  the  1st  of  May,  and  confine  himself  to  something  expressing 
simply  this — 

*'  '  That  the  board  has  not  hitherto  come  to  any  resolution,  declaratory  of  its 
sentiments  on  the  Catholic  bill,' 

"  I  will  have  no  objection  to  second  him.  If  he  shall  not  think  fit 
to  adopt  my  suggestion,  I  will  move  it  as  an  amendment.  He  says, 
a  motion  of  this  tendency  may  be  useful.  Not  seeing  its  utility, 
I  am,  however,  ready  to  concede  to  his  judgment  ;  and  although  I 
never  heard  it  asserted,  neither  have  I  seen  it  alleged  by  any  news- 
paper that  such  resolution  was  adopted,  yet  as  my  motion  will 
contain  a  plain  truism,  and  precisely  square  with  the  objects  which 
the  gentleman  has  so  distinctly  avowed,  I  do  expect  that  the  re- 
spected gentleman  will  substitute  it  for  his  own. 

"  Mr.  Bagot  again  rose  and  declared,  that  he  was  ready  to  adopt 
Mr.  O'Connell's  amendment.  He  then  withdrew  his  original 
motion,  and  moved  that  suggested  by  Mr.  O'Connell. 

"  Mr.  N.  Mahon  said,  he  thought  the  amended  motion  was 
equally  objectionable  with  the  original,  because  it  would  be  con- 
sidered as  implying  an  approbation  of  the  bill  in  its  present  shape. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  said  he  rose  to  second  the  motion,  as  amended  by 
Mr.   Bagot,  and  he  would  not  have  added  a  single   word,   but  for 


304  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

what  had  fallen  from  Mr.  Mahon.  It  really  surprised  him  that  the 
accurate  mind  of  Mi-.  Mahon  could  be  misled  for  one  moment  on  the 
subject.  This  motion  implies  an  approbation  of  the  bill — of  the  entire 
bill — in  the  present  shape  !  I  can  assure  my  friend,  Mr.  Mahon,  there 
is  not  a  man  living  would  be  so  far  from  agreeing  to  any  motion, 
implying  such  approbation,  as  I  should ;  I  must  be  guilty  of  a  foul 
dereliction  of  the  duty  I  owe  to  my  country,  if  I  approved  of  it.  I 
do  approve  of  the  spirit  of  conciliation  which  the  introduction  of  this 
bill  has  evinced  ;  I  do  approve  of  the  motives  and  of  the  exertions 
of  its  supporters  ;  but  I  disapprove  of  the  narrowness  of  principle  on 
which  the  bill  was  framed,  and  the  scantiness  of  real  i*elief  which  it 
will  bestow.  The  objections  which  I  stated  to  it,  on  the  1st  of  May, 
do,  most  of  them,  still  continue  in  my  mind,  and  the  principal  and 
leading  objections  are  confirmed,  and  put  beyond  any  doubt,  by 
my  subsequent  consideration  and  examination. 

"  I  have  read  the  opinions  of  our  venerated  advocate,  Grattan, 
upon  those  objections.  The  newspapers  have  told  us  his  opinions, 
and  I  regret  to  be  obliged  to  say,  they  are  unfortunately  unfounded ; 
I  see  that  he  has  been  deceived;  not  being  a  practical  lawyer,  it  was 
easy,  in  this  respect,  to  impose  upon  him  ;  and  I  also  see  the  precise 
process  of  that  deception  on  his  mind.  Instead,  therefore,  of  support- 
ing any  resolution  approbatory  of  the  frame  of  the  bill,  I  came  here 
this  day,  prepared  with  the  chapter  and  section  of  the  various 
Statutes,  which  will  prevent  the  desired  and  the  proposed  operation 
of  the  present  bill,  when  it  shall  have  passed  into  a  law.  As  Mr. 
Lawlor's  motion  has  been  discharged  this  day,  I  will,  on  Saturday 
next,  submit  them  to  the  board,  in  order  that  you  may  consider  the 
propriety  of  communicating  them,  through  our  delegates  in  London, 
to  our  friends  in  parliament. 

"  This  motion,  my  lord,  does  not  contain  anything  like  an  appro- 
bation of  the  frame  of  the  bill.  I  told  you,  that  I  myself  do  not 
approve  of  that  frame  as  it  relates  to  our  civil  liberties,  much  less 
could  I  give  it  my  approbation,  as  it  relates  to  the  patronage  of  our 
church.  Upon  this  subject  I  have  only  to  say,  that  the  more  I 
consider  of  it  the  less  am  I  satisfied.  But  I  would  not  further  press 
the  subject,  than  to  say,  that  before  we  meet  again,  the  Catholic 
prelates  of  Ireland  will  have  decided  this  matter.  Should  they 
decide  against  the  proposed  commission,  they  shall  have  my  most 
hearty  support ;  should  they  decide  in  its  favour,  I  stiU  reserve  to 
myself,  on  every  fit  occasion,  the  right  to  pi'otest  against  any  measure 
that  may  tarnish  this  last  relic   of  national  independence — this   last 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,  M.l'.  305 

fragment  of  the  ancient  pride  and  greatness  of  imperial  Ireland — the 
independence  of  her  church  and  of  her  people.  (Much  cheering.) 
I  shall  reserve  to  myself  the  right,  not  as  a  Catholic,  nor  with  any- 
sectarian  reasoning,  but  as  an  Irishman,  and  a  freeman,  and  a  lover 
of  liberty,  to  impugn  any  arrangement  which  may  increase  the 
already  enormous  intluence  of  the  Crown,  by  giving  in  the  additional 
power  and  authority  which  it  must  derive  from  an  influenced 
clergy.     (Cheers.) 

"  How,  then,  can  my  friend,  Mr.  MfAon,  than  whom  I  know  not  a 
more  honest  or  moi'e  zealous  Irishman,  how  can  he  impute  to  me 
an  intention  to  express  approbation  of  the  present  bill,  in  its  present 
frame?.  I  only  conjure  the  meeting  not  to  attribute  any  such 
intention  to  me,  and  I  place  my  present  support  of  Mr.  Bagot's 
motion  upon  those  two  grounds — first,  that  in  this  shape,  it  neither 
contradicts  nor  impugns  the  proceedings  which  took  place  on  the 
first  of  May,  in  the  board,  nor  any  report  of  those  proceedings  (Hear, 
hear)  ;  and,  secondly,  that  it  does  not  imply  any  approbation  of  the 
present  frame  of  the  Catholic  bill,  whilst  it  does  assert  the  neutrality, 
not  of  our  discussions,  but  of  our  resolutions  on  the  subject.  (Hear, 
hear.)" 

On  Mr.  Bagot's  motion,  as  amended  by  Mr.  O'Connell,  a 
further  amendment  was  moved — viz.,  to  adjourn.  That  being 
lost  on  a  division  of  35  to  24,  Mr.  Bagot's  amendment  was 
carried. 

The  next  business  of  the  meeting  was  a  report  brought  up 
by  Blr.  O'Connell. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  said  that  it  was  a  duty  with  which  he  had  been 
honoured,  to  report  from  tlie  Law  Conmiittee.  It  would  be  recol- 
lected that,  at  that  period  of  the  Richmond  administration  in  Ireland, 
it  was  resolved, to  impede  the  Catholics  in  their  undoubted  right 
to  petition  parliament,  the  last  unarmed  refuge  of  the  oppressed. 
(Hear,  hear.)  At  that  period  when,  in  order  to  continue  the  degra- 
dation of  the  Catholic,  the  Protestant  was  told  gravely .  and  from 
authority,  that  pretence  meant  purpose — at  that  period,  when  the 
administration  commenced  its  state  prosecution,  under  the  pretence 
of  punishing  a  violation  of  law,  but  for  the  vile  purpose  of  gratifying 
the  malignant  rancour  of  transplanted  and  hereditary  bigotry — at 
that  peiiod  of  the  arrest  of  the  delegates,  it  was  felt  that  their  defence 
became  not  an  individual,   but  a   national   concei'ii  ;  and   the   Law 

X 


306  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

Committee   was  framed  to  superintend,  and  manage,  and  defray  the 
expenses  of  that  defence. 

"  In  now  reporting  from  that  committee,  he  was  directed  to  state 
that  they  had  approved  and  sanctioned  the  actions  against  the  Chief 
Justice.  One  of  these  actions,  that  at  the  suit  of  Mr.  Tuaffe,  had  been 
argued  upon  a  plea  that  asserted  the  right  of  the  defendant,  as  Chief 
Justice,  to  arrest  any  individual  at  his  (japrice.  This  plea  had  been 
held  a  good  defence  by  three  judges  against  one.  But  that  one,  the 
ever  incorruptible  Fletcher,  had  pronounced  a  j  udgnient  against  the  plea, 
which,  for  depth  of  legal  research  and  constitutional  knowledge,  for 
strength  and  splendour  of  argument  and  eloquence,  had  seldom  been 
equalled — never  !  ad  been  excelled.  (Hear,  hear.)  Supported  by 
his  honest  and  able  judgment,  and  by  the  strong  conviction  that  the 
assertion  of  the  arbitrary  power  alleged  by  the  defendant,  was  as 
inconsistent  with  the  first  principles  of  the  constitution,  as  it  plainly 
was  with  every  notion  of  individual  liberty  or  safety — the  plaintiff 
was  advised  to  bring,  and  he  has  accordingly  brought  his  writ  of 
error,  and  the  record  has  been  removed  to  the  court  of  Exchequer 
Chamber,  in  which  the  twelve  judges  preside. 

"  In  this  stage  of  the  proceedings  a  new  era  has  commenced  ;  par- 
liament, so  long  deaf  to  our  complaints,  has  proclaimed  a  disposition 
to  conciliation  and  harmony.  The  right  of  the  Catholics  to  equal 
liberty  has  been  recognised — their  claim  to  freedom  of  conscience  has 
been  allowed.  It  stands  confesvsed  that  they  ought  not  any  longer 
to  remain  an  inferior  or  a  degraded  people — that  they  ought  not  to 
be  treated  as  aliens  and  strangers  in  this  their  native  land.  Under 
these  impressions  a  bill  has  been  brought  in,  questionable,  certainly, 
as  to  the  extent  of  its  relief,  but  leaving  no  doubt  as  to  the  purity  of 
the  motives  and  intentions  of  its  supporters.  This  bill  holds  out  the 
olive  branch,  and  we  ought  to  accept  of  it  in  the  very  spirit  of  con- 
ciliation and  gratitude.  (Hear.)  Nay,  our  gratitude  ought  not  to 
be  merely  commensurate  with  the  measure  of  the  intended  relief.  It 
should  exceed  even  the  hopes  of  our  friends,  and  manifest  itself  in  all 
our  conduct.  In  this  view  of  the  subject,  and  with  this  spirit,  I  am 
directed  to  report  to  you  the  unanimous  opinion  of  the  Law  Com- 
mittee, that  the  actions  against  the  Chief  Justice  should  be  discon- 
tinued— that  we  should  concede  to  the  offer  of  friendship,  that 
which  no  exertion  of  power  could  extort  from  us,  and  give  the  first 
proof  of  our  anxious  wish  to  bury  every  irritating  recollection,  and 
every  past  injury,  in  an  eternal  oblivion.  (Hear,  hear.) 

"  There  were  two  objections  started  to  the  proposed  measure — the 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.l>.  307 

one  was  oi'  a  public,  the  other  of  a  personal  nature  ;  the  reason  which 
affected  the  public  was,  that  we  owed  it  to  the  country  not  to 
acquiesce  in  a  doctrine  and  a  decision  which  went  to  establish  an 
arbitrary  power  in  the  Chief  Justipe ;  and  that  this  decision  would 
stand  as  a  bad  precedent  upon  which  future  chief  justices  might 
oppress  with  impunity ;  therefore,  it  was  suggested,  we  ought  to 
have  tried  every  court  of  appeal  before  we  abandoned  so  important  a 
discussion. 

"  The  weight  of  this  reason  was  certainly  felt,  and  felt  strongly  ; 
but  as  it  was,  at  the  same  time,  felt_^that  the  motives  which  induced 
an  acquiescence  in  this  decision  would  go  down  to  posterity  with  the 
decision  itself,  and  what  was  still  better,  that  it  would  be  accompanied 
with  all  those  arguments  of  law  and  reason  with  which  it  had  been 
combatted  by  one  of  the  purest  men  and  of  the  ablest  lawyers  that  ever 
oi'iiamented  the  bench,  ]Mr.  Justice  Fletcher.  When  it  was  consi- 
dered that  any  mischief  to  public  liberty,  which  may  be  apprehended 
from  this  judgment,  would  be  thus  powerfully  counteracted,  it  was 
our  ultimate  opinion,  that  the  possibility  of  such  mischief  ought  not  to 
prevent  our  making  this  sacrifice  to  the  infant  genius  of  harmony  and 
conciliation. 

"  The  personal  argument  against  abandoning  these  actions  be- 
longed to  the  defendant  himself;  the  extraordinary  character  for 
piety  and  sanctimony  of  life,  which  his  flatterers  and  parasites  have 
attempted  to  confer  on  him,  did  certainly  give  to  his  volunteering  his 
services,  in  the  arrest  of  the  delegates,  a  weight  and  importance  which 
the  act  of  the  ordinary  police  justices  would  not  have  had.  For  this 
extra  judicial  interference  much  resentment  was,  of  course,  retained  ; 
and  I  do  most  entirely  agree  with  those  who  observed  upon  the 
extreme  indelicacy  of  any  judge  declaring  an  opinion  as  a  magistrate, 
and  taking  a  part,  out  of  court,  in  that  which  was  afterwards  to  be 
brought  before  him  for  his  deliberate  and  judicial  opinion.  Yet  such 
was  the  conduct  of  Mr.  Downes  upon  our  gi-eat  question  ;  and,  as 
far  as  relates  to  him  personally  and  individually,  there  certainly  is 
nothing  in  the  tenor  of  his  conduct,  as  a  public  man,  that  could 
justify  or  require  our  making  any  concession  to  him.  As  an  indivi- 
dual, his  country  owes  him  nothing — the  Catholics  owe  him  still 
less.  Amongst  his  dearest  friends,  in  private  life,  are  our  bitterest 
enemies.  All  these  powerful  motives,  and  many  more  which,  at  any 
other  period,  I  would  readily  recapitulate,  but  which  I  now  gladly 
omit,  urged  and  [)ressed  the  continuation  of  these  actions,  liut  the 
Law  Committee  felt  that  Mr.  Downes  lilled  the  hi^h  oliice  of  Lord 


308  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

Chief  Justice  of  Ireland — that  to  his  high  station  great  reverence  was 

due that  the  Bench  woukl  soon  cease  to  be  respectable  unless  it  was 

respected ;  and,  after  all,  that  it  suited  the  dignity  of  the  Catholic 
people  of  Ireland  to  forgive  and  to  forget  the  act  of  the  individual, 
and  in  regard  for  his  great  function,  to  abandon  every  pursuit 
inconsistent  Avith  its  ease  and  tranquillity.  We  do,  therefore,  in  the 
anxious  desire  to  commence  an  era  of  mutual  forgiveness  and  for- 
beai'ance — in  the  sincere  wish  of  seeing  every  angry  passion  yield  to 
the  conciliating  temper  of  the  time — in  the  hope  of  aifoi'ding  an 
example  fo  be  imitated — in  the  affectionate  solicitude  to  terminate, 
on  our  pai't,  all  cause  of  dissension,  all  excitement  to  animosity — in 
the  determination  to  join  and  to  precede  in  conciliation  and  in  the 
oblivion  of  injuries,  and  in  the  spirit  of  peace  and  harmony,  we  do 
recommend,  that  the  actions  against  the  Chief  Justice  be  discontinued 
and  terminated  for  ever.     (Hear,  hear.) 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  concluded  by  moving,  '  that  under  tlie  existing 
circumstances  of  public  aftairs,  it  be  recommended  to  the  plaintiffs,  in 
the  actions  against  the  Chief  Justice,  to  discontinue  the  same  forth- 
with.' 

"  Mr.  N.  Mahou  seconded  the  motion,  and  it  was  carried  without 
a  dissentient  voice." 

Of  course  this  generous  act  on  the  part  of  the  Catholics — 
this  evidence  of  tlieir  anxious  desire  to  conciliate — to  forget 
grievous  offences  against  their  country  and  themselves,  the  first 
moment  that  a  gleam  of  hope  was  given  to  them,  met  with  as 
bad  a  return,  and  was  mocked  at  with  as  much  of  vulgar  glee, 
by  the  ascendancy  faction,  as  was  the  case  with  many  and  many 
a  similar  demonstration  on  their  part  before,  and  has  been  many 
and  many  a  time  since. 

"  In  your  patience  you  shall  possess  your  souls,"  says  the 
Divine  authority. 

"  In  your  patience  you  shall  possess  your  country,"  would 
seem  to  be,  in  the  minds  of  the  Catholics  of  Ireland,  the  applica- 
tion of  that  divine  saying. 

Never  men  of  any  other  clime  or  creed  have  shown  such 
patience — patience  wondrous,  were  it  not  Christian  I  Never 
men  have  so  borne  or  forborne  foul  and  cruel  insult  and  wrong, 
checking  the  strongest  impulses  that  can  excite  men,  control- 
ling the  fiercest  passions  tliat  can  impel  the  human   energies, 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,     ESQ.,    M.P.  309 

willing  always  to  be  conciliated,  willing  always  to  forget  the 
past,  hoping  on,  hoping  ever,  hut  not  doomed  ever  to  hope  in 
'  vain^  for  that  most  beatific  interposition  of  Providence  that 
shall  bring  Irish  hearts  together,  and  unite  all  in  one  common 
thought,  and  in  one  common  noble  effort  for  the  regeneration 
of  their  common  country. 

No  where  but  in  Ireland  has  this  grand  national  virtue  of 
Fortitude  been  so  eminently  shown  ;  and  little  is  risked  in 
asserting,  that  no  other  people  of  the  present  time  would  be 
capable  of  displaying  it  in  anything  like  the  same  degree. 

The  English  could  not.  Were  there  no  other  differences, 
their  besetting  sin  of  pride  would  incapacitate  them  for  receiv- 
ing with  meekness,  the  stern  yet  saving  lessons  of  adversity. 

The  blood-instincts  of  the  tiger  have  been  too  much  awakened 
in  French  and  Spanish  breasts,  by  the  events  of  the  last  half 
century,  to  allow  a  hope  that  they  shall,  for  a  long  time  yet, 
be  found  willing  to  adopt  and  follow  out  the  peaceful,  stainless, 
crimeless  course  by  which  the  Irish  are  seeking  a  relief  from 
oppressions,  and  an  enlargement  and  secure  establishment  of 
popular  liberties. 

The  mud  and  mire  of  infidelity  have  quelled  and  damped  down 
into  fetid  smoke  well  nigh  all  that  there  was  of  Promethean 
fire  in  the  hearts  of  the  dreaming  Germans ;  and  their  political 
redemption,  whenever  it  may  come,  shall  not  have  been  earned 
by  the  display  of  any  of  the  nobler  and  higher  qualities  of  the 
soul. 

Of  the  Russians  we  need  not  speak.  Of  the  poor  Poles  much 
might  be  said,  but  it  wrings  the  heart  to  speak  of  them.  Of  the 
Austrians,  so  far  as  distinguishable  from  the  German,  it  is  hard 
to  speak ;  for  the  nature  of  their  government  has  so  repressed 
all  exhibition  of  opinion  and  temperament,  that  one  scarce  know^ 
whether  they  are  in  fat  contentment  in  their  childlike  thraldom, 
or  are  patiently  bearing  with  grievances  and  deprivations  of 
rights  until  it  may  be  lawful  and  practicable  without  crime  to  put 
an  end  to  them. 

In  America,  the  continuance  and  fostering  of  negro  slavery, 
the  repudiation  of  just  debts,  the  Texas  robbery,  the  extermina- 
tions being  carried  out  against  the  Indians,  the  Lynchings,  the 
mobbings,  sacking  of  convents,  burning  of  churches,  and  other 


310  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

such  sad  facts,  have  left  such  blots  on  the  national  character,  that 
men  are  jjettino'  incredulous  as  to  whether  there  can  be  aujjht  of 
good  behind. 

Bright  may  be — bright,  in  all  human  probability  will  be — the 
history  of  our  beloved  country  after  she  shall  have  attained  her 
rights. 

But  no  destiny  that  is  yet  before  her,  howsoever  brilliant  and 
exalted,  can  ever  shed  such  pure  and  glorious  radiance  on  the 
name  of  Irishmen,  as  their  unflinching,  indomitable,  most 
Christian  patience  and  fortitude  in  adversity  and  under  perse- 
cution ! 

In  order  that  the  reader  may  have  the  opportunity  of  judging 
for  himself  of  the  nature  of  the  bill  for  Catholic  relief  that  was 
now  under  discussion,  we  subjoin  a  brief  summary  of  its  general 
provisions,  and  a  more  particular  statement  of  the  obnoxious 
clauses. 

After  a  wordy  preamble,  declaring  the  inviolability  of  the 
Protestant  succession  and  the  Protestant  Church  Establishment, 
and  professing  great  good  will  towards  the  Catholics,  the 
measure  proposed 

To  admit  the  latter  to  seats  in  parliament,  on  taking  an  oath 
similar  to  that  at  the  present  time  actually  taken  by  Catholic 
M.P.'s,  with  the  insulting  addition  of  express  renunciations  of 
the  anti-loyal  and  anti-social  doctrines  calumniously  imputed  to 
persons  of  that  communion. 

To  admit  to  all  offices  and  situations,  civil  and  military  (on 
taking  the  same  insulting  oath),  except  to  those  of  Lord  High 
Chancellor,  Lord  Keeper,  or  Commissioner  of  the  Great  Seal 
of  Great  Britain,  Lord  Lieutenant,  Lord  Deputy,  or  other  chief 
governor  or  governors  of  Ireland. 

OflSces  in  municipal  corporations  also  opened. 

The  next  clause  ran  thus  : — 

•'  And  be  it  further  enacted,  that  every  person  now  exercising,  or 
who  shall  hereafter  exercise  any  of  the  spiritual  duties  or  functions 
usually  exercised  by  persons  in  Holy  Orders  professing  the  Roman 
Catholic  religion,  shall  within  six  calendar  months  from  the  passing 
of  this  act,  or  within  one  calendar  month  after  entering  into  Holy 
Orders,  and  before   he  shall   exercise  any   of  the  spiritual   duties   or 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  311 

functions  aforesaid,  take,  make,  and  subscribe  the  oath  and  declara- 
tion in  this  act  contained,  and  also  the  oath  following. 

"  '  I  A.  B.  do  swear,  that  I  will  never  concur  in,  or  consent  to  ap- 
pointment or  consecration  of  any  Roman  Catholic  Bishop,  or  Dean, 
or  Vicar  Apostolic  in  the  United  Kingdom,  but  such  as  I  shall  con- 
scientiously deem  to  be  of  unimpeachable  loyalty  and  peaceable  con- 
duct ;  and  I  do  swear,  that  I  have  not,  and  will  not  have  any  corre- 
spondence or  communication  with  the  Pope  or  See  of  Rome,  or  with 
any  court  or  tribunal  established,  or  to  be  established  by  the  Pope  or 
See  of  Rome,  or  by  the  authority  of  the  same,  or  with  any  person  or 
persons  authorized  or  pretending  to  be  authorized  by  the  Pope  or  See 
of  Rome,  tending  directly  or  indirectly  to  overthrow  or  disturb  the 
Protestant  Government,  or  the  Protestant  Church  of  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland,  or  the  Church  of  Scotland,  as  by  law  established ;  and 
that  I  will  not  correspond  or  communicate  with  the  Pope  or  See  of 
Rome,  or  with  any  tribunal  established  or  to  be  established  by  the 
Pope  or  See  of  Rome,  or  by  the  authority  of  the  same,  or  with  any 
person  or  persons  authorized  or  pretending  to  be  authorized  by  the 
Pope  or  See  of  Rome,  or  with  any  other  foreign  or  ecclesiastical 
authority,  on  any  matter  or  thing  not  purely  spiritual  or  ecclesiasti- 
cal.' " 

This  was  followed  by  provisions  as  to  the  manner  of  takirij^ 
the  oath  aforesaid ;  and  then,  after  clauses  requiring  that  no 
foreigner  should  "  be  capable  of  exercising  any  Episcopal  duties 
or  functions,  or  the  duties  and  functions  of  a  Dean,"  and  enact- 
ing the  punishment  of  banishment  against  any  foreigner  assuming 
these  duties  and  functions :  and  the  same  punishment  against 
any  native  born  subject,  who  should  assume  them  without  having 
been  previously  resident  within  the  United  Kingdom,  during 
"  five  years  next  })receding  his  first  exercising  them,"  came  the 
following  gross  insult: 

"  And  whereas  it  is  tit  and  expedient  that  such  further  precautions 
should  be  taken,  in  respect  to  persons  in  Holy  Orders  professing  the 
Roman  Catholic  religion,  who  may  at  any  time  hereafter  be  elected, 
nominated  or  appointed  to  the  exercise  or  discharge  of  Episcopal  du- 
ties or  functions,  or  of  the  duties  or  functions  of  a  Dean,  within  the 
United  Kingdom,  as  that  no  such  person  shall  at  any  time  here- 
after assume  the  exercise  or  discharge  of  such  Episcopal  duties  or 


312  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

functions  of  a  Dean,  within  the  United  Kingdom,  as  that  no  such 
person  shall  at  any  time  hereafter  assume  the  exercise  or  discharge 
of  such  Episcopal  duties  or  functions  or  any  part  thereof,  whose 
loyalty  and  peaceable  conduct  shall  not  have  been  previously  ascer- 
tained to  the  satisfaction  of  his  Majesty,  his  heirs  and  successors ;  and 
whereas  it  is  reasonable  and  necessary  that  his  Majesty,  his  heirs 
and  successors,  should  be  fully  informed  of  the  extent  and  nature  of 
any  intercourse  which  may  take  place  between  the  subjects  of  this 
realm  and  any  foreign  power,  in  order  to  prevent  any  evils  or  dangers 
to  the  state  which  might  arise  therefrom  :  And  whei'cas  the  laws 
made  in  former  times  against  intercourse  between  the  subjects  of  this 
realm  and  the  See  of  Rome  are  of  extreme  and  undistinguishing 
rigour  and  severity :  Be  it  thei'cfore  enacted,  that  it  shall  and  may  be 
lawful  for  his  Majesty,  his  heirs  and  successors,  by  two  several  com- 
missions, to  be  issued  under  the  great  seal  of  Ireland  respectively,  to 
nominate  and  appoint  in  Great  Britain  such  person  or  persons,  in 
Holy  Orders,  professing  the  Roman  Catholic  religion,  and  exercising 
Episcopal  duties  or  functions  with  Great  Britain,  and  such  lay  peers 
professing  the  Roman  Catholic  religion  (such  commoners  being 
respectively  possessed  of  freehold  estates  in  land  in  Ii-eland  of  not  less 
than  £1,000  a-year,  or  of  £20,000  in  personal  property),  and  such 
members  of  his  Majesty's  most  honourable  Privy  Council  in  Ireland 
(whereof  one  of  his  Majesty's  pi'incipal  secretaries  of  state  for  the 
time  being  shall  be  one),  as  his  Majesty,  his  heirs  and  successors,  shall 
from  time  to  time  think  fit ;  and  to  nominate  and  appoint  in  Ireland 
such  pej'sons  in  Holy  Orders,  professing  the  Roman  Catholic  religion, 
and  exercising  Episcopal  duties  or  functions  in  Ireland,  and  such  lay 
peers,  professing  the  Roman  Catholic  religion  (such  commoners  being 
respectively  possessed  of  freehold  estates  in  land  in  Ireland  of  not  less 
than  £1,000  a-year  or  of  £20,000  in  personal  property),  and  such 
members  of  his  Majesty's  most  honourable  Privy  Council  in  Ireland 
(whereof  the  Chief  Secretary  of  the  Lord  Lieutenant,  or  Lord  Deputy, 
or  other  chief  governor  or  governors  of  Ireland  for  the  time  being  shall 
be  one),  as  his  Majesty,  his  heirs  and  successors,  or  the  Lord  Lieu- 
tenant, Lord  Deputy,  or  other  chief  governor  or  governors  of  Ireland 
shall  from  time  to  time  think  fit,  to  be  commissionei's  under  this  act, 
in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  respectively,  for  the  purposes  herein- 
after mentioned. 

"  Provided  always,  and  be  it  further  enacted,  that  in  Great  Britain 
one  member  of  such  board  shall  be  either  his  Majesty^s  said  principal 
Secretary  of  State,  or  one  other  member  of  his  Majesty's  most  honour- 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  313 

able  Privy  Council,  being  a  Protestant ;  and  one  other  member  of  said 
board  shall  be  one  of  the  Ecclesiastical  Roman  Catholic  commis- 
sioners aforesaid ;  and  that  one  other  member  of  such  board  shall  be 
one  of  the  lay  Roman  Catholic  commissioners  aforesaid :  And  that 
in  Ireland  one  member  of  such  board  shall  be  either  the  Chief  Secre- 
tary of  the  said  Lord  Lieutenant,  Lord  Deputy,  or  other  chief 
governor  or  governors  of  Ireland,  or  one  other  member  of  his  Majesty's 
most  honourable  Privy  Council  in  Ireland,  being  a  Protestant,  and 
that  one  other  member  of  the  said  board  shall  be  one  of  the  Eccle- 
siastical Roman  Catholic  commissioners  aforesaid  ;  and  that  one 
other  member  of  such  board  shall  be  one  of  the  lay  Roman  Catholic 
commissioners  aforesaid. 

"  And  be  it  further  enacted,  that,  in  Great  Britain,  his  Majesty's 
said  principal  Secretary  of  State,  or,  in  his  absence,  the  commissioners 
first  named  in  the  said  commission  for  Great  Britain  ;  and  in  Ireland, 
the  said  Chief  Secretary  to  the  Lord  Lieutenant,  Lord  Deputy,  or 
other  chief  governor  or  governors  of  Ireland,  or,  in  his  absence,  the 
commissioner  first  named  in  the  commission  for  Ireland,  shall  be  the 
presidents  of  the  said  boards  respectively. 

"  And  be  it  further  enacted,  that  it  shall  and  may  be  lawful  for 
his  Majesty,  his  heirs  and  successors,  from  time  to  time,  at  his  and  their 
will  and  pleasure,  to  revoke  and  determine  the  commissions  aforesaid, 
or  either  of  them,  and  to  cause  a  new  commission  or  commissions  to 
be  sealed  as  aforesaid,  appointing  any  other  person  or  persons  to  be 
commi  ssioners  and  members  of  the  said  board." 

It  would  seem  that  the  concocters  of  the  Bequests  and  Col- 
leges' Acts  of  1844-45  borrowed  a  leaf  from  the  insulting  bill  of 
1813,  with  regard  to  the  power  of  the  Crown  over  commissioners 
of  Catholic  affairs. 

The  monstrous  attempt  was  happily  frustrated  in  1813.  Let 
us  trust  that  it  will  be  equally  frustrated  in  1846.  That  liberty 
in  matters  having  reference  to  religion,  for  which  the  Catholics 
of  Ireland  have  so  long  suffered  and  struggled,  ought  not  to  be 
lightly  imperilled  merely  because  English  governments,  hitherto 
hostile,  have  found  themselves  compelled,  by  the  noble  attitude 
of  the  Irish  people,  to  put  on  the  semblance,  and  only  the  bare 
semblance,  of  conciliatory  dispositions. 

Provisions  for  taking  the  oaths  of  office,  making  of  by-laws, 
receipt  of  salaries,  &c.,  succeeded ;  and,  after  them,  another  of 
the  grosser  insults  of  the  bill : — 


314  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

**  And  be  it  further  enacted,  that,  from  and  after  the  passing  of  this 
act,  no  person,  in  holy  orders,  professing  the  Roman  Catholic  reliofion 
(other  than  such  as  are  already  in  the  exercise  of  Episcopal  duties  or 
functions  of  a  Dean,  within  the  United  Kingdom)  shall  assume  the 
exercise  of  Episcopal  duties  or  functions  of  a  Dean  within  the  United 
Kingdom,  or  any  part  thereof,  unless  the  name  of  such  person  shall 
previously  have  been  notified,  in  writing,  to  the  President  of  the 
Board  of  Commissioners,  by  this  act  appointed,  in  Great  Britain  or 
Ireland  (as  the  case  may  be),  and  until  the  said  person  shall  have 
received  the  signification  of  his  Majesty's  approbation,  or  of  the 
approbation  of  the  Lord  Lieutenant,  Lord  Deputy,  or  other  chief 
governor  or  governors  of  Ireland,  in  manner  hereinafter-mentioned. 

"  And  be  it  further  enacted,  that  the  President  of  the  said  Board 
of  Commissioners,  in  Gi-eat  Britain  or  Ireland  (as  the  case  may  be), 
shall,  so  soon  as  the  name  of  such  person,  as  aforesaid,  shall  have  been 
so  notified  to  him,  as  aforesaid,  forthwith  lay  the  same  befoi-e  the  said 
Board  of  Commissioners  ;  and  that  the  said  Board  of  Commissioners 
shall,  within  six  weeks  after  such  name  shall  have  been  so  laid  before 
them,  report  to  his  Majesty,  or  to  the  Lord  Lieutenant,  or  Lord 
Deputy,  or  other  chief  governor  or  governors  of  Ireland  (as  the  case 
may  be),  in  writing,  under  their  hands  and  seals,  '  whether  they  know 
or  believe  any  thing  which  tends  to  impeach  the  loyalty  or  peaceable 
conduct  of  the  person  whose  name  shall  have  been  so  laid  before 
them  ;  and  that  upon  such  report,  it  shall  and  may  be  lawful  for  his 
Majesty,  or  for  the  Lord  Lieutenant,  Lord  Deputy,  or  other  chief 
governor  or  governors  of  Ireland  (as  the  case  may  be),  by  and  with 
the  advice  of  the  said  commissioners,  to  approve  or  disapprove  of  the 
said  person ;  and  that  his  Majesty's  approbation  or  disapprobation,  or 
the  approbation  or  disapprobation  of  the  Loi'd  Lieutenant,  Lord 
Deputy,  or  other  chief  governor  or  governors  of  Ireland,  as  aforesaid, 
shall  be  signified  to  the  said  person,  if  in  Great  Britain,  by  an  instru- 
ment under  the  hand  and  seal  of  one  of  his  Majesty's  principal 
secretaries  of  state,  and  if  in  Ireland  by  an  instrument  under 
the  hand  and  seal  of  the  said  Lord  Lieutenant,  Lord  Deputy,  or 
other,  the  chief  governor  or  governors  of  Ireland,  or  of  his  or 
their  chief  secretary,  within  ten  days  after  such  report,  as  afore- 
said, shall  have  been  so  submitted  to  his  Majesty  or  to  the  Lord 
Lieutenant,  Lord  Deputy,  or  other  chief  governor  or  governors  of 
Ireland  ;  and  that  such  instruments  respectively  shall,  in  all  such 
cases,  set  forth,  '  that  the  said  royal  approbation  or  disapprobation  (or 
the  said  approbation  or  disapprobation   of  the  Lord  Lieutenant,  Lord 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  315 

Deputy,  or  other  chief  governor  or  governors  of  Ireland)  has  been 
given  upon  the  report,  and  by  and  with  the  advice  of  the  said  Board 
of  Commissioners,'  in  Great  Britain  or  Ireland  (as  the  case  may  be)." 

Banishment  was  again  prescribed  as  the  penalty  against  any 
one  assuming  "  duties  and  functions  "  before  complying  with  the 
provisions  just  given. 

Bulls  from  the  Pope,  dispensations  or  other  documents  from  him 
or  any  other  "foreign  person  or  body  whatsoever,"  were,  within 
ten  days  after  receipt,  to  be  handed  over  to  the  commissioners 
appointed  under  the  act,  in  order  that  their  high  mightinesses 
should  decide  whether  there  were  any  Gunpowder  Plot  in  them 
against  "  the  Protestant  succession  and  Protestant  government, 
and  Protestant  religion,  as  by  law  (and,  as  Cobbett  used  to 
add,  '  by  British  bayonets ')  established  !  !  !" 

Such  was  as  briefly  as  it  can  be  given  the  sum  of  this  precious 
bill,  for  which  the  Irish  Catholic  nation  was  expected  to  be 
humbly  and  devotedly  grateful ! 

Perhaps  so  precious  a  specimen  of  arrogant,  tyrannous,  vulgar 
insolence  and  assumption,  was  never  before  and  scarcely  ever 
since  put  forward  under  such  unblushingly  false  pretences. 

And  yet  this  was  one  of  the  products  of  that  admirable 
English  wisdom,  good  feeling,  and  liberality  which  we  are  told 
we  have  so  abundantly  experienced  since  the  loss  of  our  own 
parliament — a  parliament  restricted,  indeed,  and  exclusive  ;  but 
yet  a  parliament  that  in  less  than  twenty  years,  up  to  1793, 
passed  no  less  than  four  measures  of  real  and  generous  relief  to 
their  Catholic  fellow-countrymen:  while  the  English  parliament, 
after  mocking  the  latter  with  several  such  illusory  and  insulting 
propositions  as  that  we  have  been  describing,  delayed  for  twenty- 
nine  long  years  their  measure  of  concession,  and  then  passed 
it  with  insult,  and  only  through  fear  of  a  civil  war  ! 

What  deep  debts  of  gratitude  do  we  not  owe  to  England's 
legislative  generosity !  One  scant  measure  of  justice  wrung 
from  her  after  twenty-nine  years  of  insulting  denial ;  more 
insulting  mockery  of  relief-bills  claiming  securities  against  our 
treason ;  and  abundant  profusion  of  Insurrection  and  Coercion 
acts  and  measures  of  injury  and  restriction  ! 


316  MKMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

Has  the  policy  chang-ed  since  1829?  Let  us  briefly  run  over 
events  since,  and  examine. 

Assuredly,  it  is  a  point  of  importance  so  to  do  ;  for  there  is  an 
ominous  tendency  in  the  present  times  to  investigate  the  condi- 
tion of  the  international  relations  of  the  two  countries  ;  and  it 
would  be  well,  if  possible,  if  practicable,  to  provide  against  the 
bitterness  of  such  a  review,  by  citing  and  making  to  stand  out  in 
the  clear  light  of  day,  those  instances,  if  such  can  be  found  to 
exist,  in  which  a  disposition  was  evinced  to  make  some  tardy 
reparation  for  the  cruelties  of  centuries. 

The  Emancipation  Act  was  accompanied  by  penal  clauses 
against  the  regular  clergy,  who,  by  their  fidelity  during  the  times 
of  persecution — when  the  establishments  of  their  orders  in  other 
countries  gave  them  means  of  education  and  preparation  for  the 
dangerous  mission  of  Ireland,  which  the  secular  clergy  possessed 
not — secured  for  themselves  the  everlasting  affection  of  the 
faithful  Irish  people. 

To  strike  at  this  admirable  class  of  men,  dear  as  they  were 
and  are  to  the  Irish  heart,  was  to  strike  at  that  heart  itself. 

The  Emancipation  Act  was  also  accompanied  by  the  petty 
spite  of  denying  to  Catholic  Bishops  the  titles  of  their  sees — 
restrictions  to  Catholic  ambition  with  regard  to  three  or  four 
high  offices  of  state,  and  the  temporary  exclusion  from  parlia- 
ment of  the  chief  lay  Catholic  who  had  compelled  England  to 
concede. 

Also  by  the  cruel  and  wholesale  annihilation  of  the  most 
extensive  of  the  popular  franchises — that  of  the  true-hearted 
and  devoted  forty-shilling  freeholders. 

All  these  drawbacks  seemed  not  to  be  considered  enough  to 
damp  Catholic  feeling  at  the  moment  of  concession,  without  the 
very  plain  and  unreserved  declaration  of  Peel  and  Wellington, 
that  they  did  not  concede  through  favour  or  a  sense  of  justice, 
but  because  they  could  not  help  themselves,  and  because  they 
preferred  concession  to  civil  war ! 

A  very  striking  proof  was  given  here  of  the  absolute  contempt 
entertained  for  Irish  public  opinion. 

This  declaration  of  the  ministers  could  (it  was,  of  course, 
known)  not  fail  to  remove  from  the  Irish  mind  all  gratitude  for 


DANIKL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,   M.P.  317 

the  extorted  concession ;  yet  Peel — the  cautious,  reserved, 
plausible  Peel — scrupled  not  to  make  it ! 

He  threw  Emancipation  to  us  as  the  surly  master  throws  a 
bone  to  his  spaniel — striking  at  him  with  the  other  hand  while 
he  feeds  him  ! 

We  have  had  another  instance  of  the  same  treatment  from 
him  lately.  His  Bequests  and  Colleges'  Acts  were  introduced 
with  great  professions  of  anxiety  for  the  welfare  of  Ireland ; 
but  he  has  since  not  scrupled,  or  perhaps  we  should  say  not 
hesitated,  to  avow,  that  his  intention  was  to  divide  and  distract 
us  by  our  differences  on  the  merits  or  demerits  of  those  unhappy 
acts! 

Peel  went  out  of  office  in  1830,  and  the  Wigs  came  in.  How 
did  they,  and  the  British  parliament  under  their  auspices,  act 
towards  Ireland  ?  What  was  the  next  step  towards  reparation 
of  injuries — towards  conciliation  of  justly  exasperated  feelings — 
towards  binding  the  two  countries  together  in  one  fast, 
indissoluble,  enduring  bond  of  affection  ? 

A  Coercion  bill  against  Ireland — an  unconstitutional,  tyran- 
nous, insulting,  degrading  Coercion  bill,  and  at  the  very  most 
insulting  and  irritating  moment  that  could  have  been  chosen. 

The  Irish  tepresentatives  had  devoted  themselves  to  the 
cause  of  English  parliamentary  reform.  They  had,  in  a  great 
measure,  foregone  the  demands  and  necessities  of  their  own 
aggrieved  countrymen,  to  strengthen  the  hands  in  parliament 
of  those  English  statesmen  who  were  contending  for  the  rights 
of  the  English  people.  They  supported  these  men  through 
thick  and  thin ;  and  mainly  by  their  aid  it  was,  that  parlia- 
mentary reform  was  carried  for  the  English. 

The  moment  it  was  passed,  in  the  very  first  flush  of  the 
popular  victory  in  England,  while  yet  men  were  shaking  hands 
and  exchanging  congratulations,  and  scarcely  crediting  their 
own  senses,  that  the  Dagon  of  Toryism,  whose  shadow  had  so 
long  blighted  their  liberties,  was  smitten  to  the  earth ;  that  very 
moment,  of  all  others,  was  chosen  by  the  English  Whig  ministry 
and  the  English  popular  parliament,  to  strike  down  the 
struggling  liberties  of  Ireland  ! 

Mr.  O'Connell  is,  at  this  day,  taunted  and  reviled  at  for  saying 
that  England's  distress  is  Ireland's  opportunity  !   What  can  those 


318  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

who  taunt  him,  and  who  shun  to  meet  the  historic  proofs  she 
gives — proofs  borne  witness  to  by  Pitt  in  1817,  by  Huskisson 
in  1825,  and  other  English  statesmen  themselves,  that  Ireland 
never  yet  obtained  one  concession  from  England,  save  under 
the  pressure  of  adverse  circumstances  on  the  latter  ?  What  can 
his  revilers  say,  or  attempt  to  say,  to  remove  the  deep-seated 
conviction  which  these  occurrences,  the  concession  of  Catholic 
relief  through  acknowledged  fear  of  a  civil  war,  and  the 
invasion  of  popular  liberties  when  England  was  in  her  hour 
of  triumphant  rejoicing,  have  made  on  our  minds,  that  when 
she  is  strong  she  will  tyrannize,  and  when  she  is  weak  she  will 
crouch  ? 

Parliamentary  reform  for  Ireland  was  passed  with  actual 
deprivations  of  existing  rights  of  voting,  and  complex  and  most 
injurious  arrangements  for  the  new  rights  given.  The  inequa- 
lities, on  a  comparison  with  the  measure  passed  for  England, 
were  of  the  most  glaring  description,  and  all  remonstrance  was 
in  vain. 

Corporate  reform,  after  years  of  hard  ;?truggling — three  of 
them  after  England  had  obtained  that  measure — was  at  length 
accorded  to  Ireland,  but  in  the  most  maimed  and  restricted 
degree.  A  shilling's  rating  qualifies  a  voter  in  Liverpool.  A 
rating  of  ten  pounds  is  required  in  Dublin. 

English  corporations  elect  their  own  sheriffs,  and  have  voices 
in  the  appointment  of  municipal  magistrates.  In  Ireland  this  is 
absolutely  in  the  hands  of  the  government. 

When  such  were  the  benefits  we  have  received  from  England, 
in  these  last  sixteen  years,  has  there  been  nothing  on  the  other 
side  of  the  account  ? 

In  1837,  Lord  Stanley  proclaimed  the  Irish  people  "  per- 
.TURORS,"  and  brought  in  a  measure  to  rob  them  of  their  fran- 
chise, because  he  chose  so  to  style  them. 

The  note  was  caught  up  })y  the  English  press,  and  sounded 
throughout  every  part  of  England  with  cheering  and  encourage- 
ment. The  Times  added  little  amenities  of  its  own  against  the 
Catholic  priesthood  of  Ireland. 

So  strongly  was  the  English  mind  excited  on  this  subject, 
so  congenial  and  acceptable  were  these  calumnious  and  atrocious 
attacks  on  the  rights  and  dearest  feelings  of  the  Irish,  that  the 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  319 

decline  of  the  Whig  party  within  the  House  was  greatly 
attributable  to  their  not  harking-in  with  the  cry ;  and  without 
doors  their  unpopularity  was  extreme  from  the  same  cause. 

Session  after  session,  until  the  Whigs  lost  office  entirely, 
Stanley's  motion  was  renewed  (as  must  be  in  the  recollection  of 
our  readers),  and  then,  when  the  Tories  had  secured  power  for 
themselves,  the  insulting  confession  was  made,  not  in  words,  but 
by  conduct,  that  the  calumnies  against  the  Irish  people  had 
been  used  but  as  a  means  of  bringing  those  into  odium 
who  had  shown  any  disposition  of  kindness  towards  that  people ; 
and  that  no  such  real  necessity  existed  as  had  been  so  re- 
peatedly and  fiercely  urged  for  utterly  robbing  them  of  their 
franchises. 

The  Arms'  Bill  and  the  monster  prosecution  have  been 
the  evidences  of  English  legislative  and  governmental  kindness 
since  the  Tory  advent  to  power.  The  Bequests  and  Infidel 
Colleges'  Acts  have  (as  we  have  before  noticed)  been  passed 
with  the  confessed  and  avowed  intention  of  dividing  and  dis- 
tracting, and  not  of  benefitting  or  conciliating  Ireland. 

On  the  poor  law  for  Ireland  we  will  not  mock  the  misery 
of  our  country  by  dilating.  Its  proved  inefficiency,  and  its 
insulting  management  are  but  too  evident.  Yet  one  remark  on 
the  manner  in  which  Ireland  was  treated  with  regard  to  that 
measure. 

A  commission  of  talented  and  highly  informed  Irish  gentle- 
men, laboriously  investigated,  and  most  ably  reported  on  Irish 
distress,  and  the  possible  remedies  that  might  be  applied. 

The  English  minister,  a  Whig,  too,  Lord  John  Russell, 
threw  their  report  into  the  fire — sent  over  an  English  master  of 
a  merchantman  to  make  a  nine  weeks'  post-chaise  tour  through 
Ireland ;  and  on  his  report  alone,  imposed  upon  this  unfortunate 
country  those  poor  laws  which,  under  an  immense  variety  of 
systems,  have  never  yet  been  found  successful  in  England. 

W^ith  this  glaring  instance  of  the  contemptuously  reckless 
character  of  the  English  legislative  intermeddlings  with  Irish 
matters,  even  where  the  most  important  interests  are  at  stake, 
we  conclude  our  brief  digression.  Assuredly,  the  Irishman  who, 
on  calmly  considering  the  facts  we  have  enumerated,  can  give 
or  continue  his  assent  to  our  miserable  degradation,  in  being 


320  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

thus  mis-legislated  for  by  another  country,  is  undeserving  of  the 
name  of  Irishman,  and  scarcely  even  of  that  of  man. 

On  the  27th  of  May,  the  Catholic  bishops,  assembled  in 
synod,  came  to  the  following  decisive  resolutions  against  the 
so-called  "  Relief  Bill"  :— 

"  At  a  general  meeting  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Prelates  of  Ireland, 
held  this  day,  Thursday,  May  27,  1813, 

"  Most  Rev.  Richard  O'Reilly,  D.D.  President : — 

"' Resolved  unanimously — That,  having  seriously  examined  the  copy  of  a 
bill,  now  in  progress  through  parliament  (purporting  to  provide  for  the  removal 
of  the  civil  and  military  disqualifications  under  which  his  Majesty's  Roman 
Catholic  subjects  labour),  we  feel  ourselves  bound  to  declare,  tliat  the  ecclesias- 
tical clauses  or  securities  therein  contained,  are  utterly  incompatible  with 
the  discipline  of  the  Roman  CathoUc  Church,  and  with  the  free  exercise  of 
our  religion.' 

"  '  Resolved  unanimously — That,  without  incurring  the  guilt  of  schism,  we 
cannot  accede  to  such  regulations. 

* '  '  Neither  can  we  dissemble  our  dismay  and  consternation  at  the  conse- 
quences which  such  regulations,  if  enforced,  must  necessarily  produce. ' 

(Signed)  "  Richard  O'Reilly,  President." 

Their  lordships  also  agreed  upon  an  address  to  the  laity,  to 
which  we  shall  presently  refer. 

At  the  very  time  that  they  were  meeting,  however,  the  bill 
they  thus  solemnly  denounced  and  protested  against  had  been 
withdrawn  from  before  parliament.  The  slowness  of  post-com- 
munications between  London  and  Dublin  had  prevented  their 
being  made  aware  of  the  fact.  Nor  was  the  news  received 
for  two  days  after,  although  dispatched  from  London  by  the 
mail  of  the  25th. 

On  the  nig-ht  of  the  preceding  day,  or  rather  at  a  very  early 
hour  of  the  morning  of  that  day  itself,  the  House  of  Commons 
had  concluded  a  long  debate,  in  committee,  upon  the  clause 
of  the  bill  which  admitted  Catholics  to  parliament,  by  a  division 
of  251  against  the  clause,  to  247  in  favour  of  it.  The  rejection 
of  this — the  main  clause  of  the  bill,  of  course,  led  to  the 
withdrawal  of  the  latter  by  the  government. 

Mr.  Abbott,  the  speaker,  led  the  opposition  in  this  instance, 
and  moved  the  successful  amendment  to  omit  the  clause  from 
the  bill. 

The  Dublin  Evening  Post  of  the  date  when  the  news  arrived 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  321 

in  Dublin,  had  an  article  commenting  in  terms  of  great  wonder- 
ment on  his  conduct  in  this  matter,  enumerating  several  popular 
and  liberal  votes  given  by  the  speaker  on  other  occasions ;  and 
after  the  enumeration,  thus  proceeded  : — 

"  Here,  then,  is  the  first  authority  in  the  democratic  part  of  the  con- 
stitution against  the  concession  of  the  Catholic  claims.  There  may 
be  men  equal  in  ability,  and  superior  in  power  to  Mr.  Abbott,  in 
favour  of  the  bill ;  but  there  is  no  man  that  supports  it  higher  in 
character,  or  that  has  a  greater  influence  with  the  better  orders  of  the 
community. 

"  In  one  word,  the  speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons  sj)eaks  the 
sense  of  nine-tenths  of  the  British  people. 

'*  What,  then,  is  the  opinion  of  the  English  people,  as  expressed  by 
Mr.  Abbott,  upon  the  Irish  claims  ? 

"  Mr.  Abbott  considers  the  system  introduced  by  the  bill  as  hostile 
to  the  fundamental  principle  of  the  constitution. 

"  That  the  Catholic  claims  are  not  founded  in  right. 

"  That  the  Catholic  religion  may  be  tolerated,  but  that  Catholics 
should  not  be  admitted  to  the  enjoyment  of  power."         .         .         . 

Such,  according  to  the  Dublin  Evening  Post  (and  its  assump- 
tion was  a  correct  one),  were  the  opinions  of  the  English  people, 
as  expressed  by  the  speaker  of  the  Commons  House  of  parlia- 
ment, the  enlightened  and  liberal  Mr.  Abbott. 

No  one,  now  a-days,  disputes  the  fact,  that  when  Peel  and 
Wellington  were  forced  to  concede  Catholic  Emancipation,  it 
was  against  the  will  of  the  English  people. 

In  no  wanton  bitterness  do  we  recall  this  fact  to  remem- 
brance, and  desire  it  to  be  retained — in  no  spirit  of  hostility  to 
the  English  people.  They  have  but  exhibited  a  melancholy 
instance  of  the  weakness  of  human  nature. 

Undoubtedly,  weakness,  when  it  lead  to  the  commission,  or 
encouragement,  or  toleration  of  crime,  is  a  crime  in  itself;  but 
if  ever  a  people  had  excuse  for  it,  the  English  have  that  excuse  ; 
from  the  sedulous  care,  the  wicked  pains  that  have,  for  centu- 
ries, been  taken  to  keep  them  from  knowing  and  sympathizing 
with  their  Irish  fellow  subjects,  and  to  create,  nourish,  and 
inflame  the  worst  prejudices  within  their  breasts  against  every- 
thing Irish  and  Catholic — everything  Catholic  and  Irish. 

Y 


322  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

The  recalling  to  recollection  of  instances  of  these  sad  feelings 
on  their  part  has  a  double  object,  justifiable  and  laudable  in  each 
branch. 

The  first,  that  Englishmen  may  be  warned  of  the  necessity  of 
giving  to  their  Irish  fellow  subjects  some  evidence  of  a 
repentance  for  the  past,  and  a  disposition  to  act  in  a  kindlier 
manner  for  the  future.  Mr.  O'Connell  has  well  remarked,  in 
the  introduction  to  his  work,  entitled  "  Ireland  and  the  Irish," 
that  there  is  too  much  of  a  disposition  in  England  to  assume 
entire  absolution  for  by-gone  ofl:ences  against  Ireland,  without 
thought  of  any  reparation  or  atonement  whatsoever. 

Secondly,  the  recapitulation  is  useful,  to  warn  the  Irish 
people  from  their  proverbial  failing  of  a  too  generous  confi- 
dence, which  might  lead  them  to  relax  their  efforts  at  self- 
assertion.  It  is  well  to  be  kindly  and  forgivingly  disposed  ;  but 
it  would  be  miserable  imbecility  to  think  that  self-abandonment 
was  necessary  as  a  proof  of  our  charitable  forgiveness  of 
injuries. 

No.  Let  the  Irish  people  bear  with  their  usual  calm 
patience  the  attacks  made  upon  them  for  refusing  altogether 
to  forget,  although  quite  ready  to  forgive.  The  accusations 
made  against  them,  on  this  score,  are  but  a  petty  and  insignifi- 
cant addition  to  the  mass  of  ancient  calumny  they  have  been 
subjected  to.  Let  them  be  well  assured  that  a  proper  degree  of 
self-appreciation — a  proper  amount  of  rational  care-taking  to 
protect  themselves  from  the  mistakes  or  crimes  of  others,  will 
procure  that  respect  which  can  be  the  only  sure  foundation  of 
lasting  esteem  and  regard  between  nations  as  between  indivi- 
duals. 

There  was,  after  all,  no  real  cause  for  the  wonderment  of 
the  Dublin  Evenhig  Post,  at  the  illiberality,  on  the  Catholic 
question,  of  the  enlightened  and  liberal  Mr.  Abbott. 

Amongst  the  highest  educated  of  the  members  of  both 
houses  of  parliament — amongst  the  most  "  liberal"  (on 
questions  not  having  reference  to  Ireland  or  Catholicity)  many 
of  the  bitterest  bigots,  political  and  religious,  that  ever  dis- 
graced any  time  or  any  country,  are  to  be  found  at  this  day, 
and  during  all  our  experience  of  British  legislation. 

Nay,  what  is  certainly  an  increased  anomaly  is  sometimes 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  323 

visible — of  men  who  are  quite  ready  to  concede  a  large  measure 
of  political  rights  to  Ireland,  but  who,  in  Catholic  matters 
relating  to  her,  as  well  as  in  dealing  with  Catholic  interests 
elsewhere,  have  shown  themselves  the  very  reverse  of  liberal. 

A  good  deal  of  this  has  been  shown  by  the  Whig  party 
both  in  and  out  of  office ;  and  a  very  strong  disposition  towards 
it  on  the  part  of  the  English  Radicals.  To  go  no  farther  than 
the  last  two  sessions,  we  have  seen  the  Bequests  and  Infidel 
Colleges'  Bills  warmly  supported  and  pressed  against  the  will  of 
the  great  majority  of  the  Irish  people,  and  in  open  contempt  of 
their  opinions,  by  the  English  Whigs  and  Radicals. 

In  foreign  matters,  relative  to  Catholicity,  Lord  John 
Russell  and  Lord  Palmerston — the  one  the  chief,  the  other  a 
prominent,  liberal  leader,  have  displayed  considerable  inve- 
teracy, and,  if  we  may  use  the  word,  without  being  accused  of 
personal  bitterness,  considerable  bigotry. 

We  allude  to  Lord  John  Russell's  conduct  while  Colonial 
Minister.  In  all  Catholic  matters  relative  to  the  Colonies,  he 
was  ever  found  most  intractable,  most  unaccommodating — we 
had  almost  said,  most  unfair. 

Lord  Palmerston  deliberately  abandoned  the  Catholics  of 
Syria  to  the  atrocities  of  the  Turks,  when  it  would  have  been 
in  his  power  to  have  secured  them  guarantees  for  the  free 
exercise  of  their  religion,  and  safety  of  their  persons  and 
properties,  such  as  they  had  enjoyed  under  the  rule  of  Mahomet 
Ali. 

And  in  turning  from  these  subjects  we  must  remark,  in 
conclusion,  that  the  Whig  press,  particularly  the  liberal 
Morning  Chronicle  and  radical  Examiner,  have  been  deep-dyed 
in  criminality  on  this  score,  both  having  heartily  approved  of 
the  late  King  of  Prussia's  tyranny  towards  the  Rhenish 
Catholics,  and  his  persecution  of  the  admirable  Confessor 
Clement,  Archbishop  of  Cologne ;  as  also  of  the  monstrous 
tyrannies  of  Espartero  against  the  ministers  of  the  Catholic 
religion  in  Spain. 

We  have  too  long  delayed  in  coming  to  the  interesting 
meeting  of  the  Catholic  board,  after  the  rejection  of  the  insult 
ing  "  Relief  Bill"  of  1813  ;  but  there  is  so  much  of  relevancy 
and    similaritv    in    the    events    of    the  times    of   which   we  are 


324  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

treating,  to  the  events  and  circumstances  of  the  present  time, 
that  it  is  very  difficult  to  avoid  being  betrayed  into  frequent 
digression. 

On  Saturday,  the  29th  May,  the  board  met  for  the  first  time 
after  the  news  had  arrived  that  the  bill  was  withdrawn. 

The  chair  was  taken  by  Lord  Triraleston,  who  commenced 
with  a  very  doleful  lamentation  over  the  loss  of  the  measure  in 
question,  stating  that  he  had  been  thereby  reduced  from  a 
state  of  the  greatest  exultation  and  hope  to  one  of  grief, 
and  almost  of  despair,  and  entitling  it,  "  The  Great  Charter  of 
our  Emancipation." 

Loud  cries  of  no !  no  !  met  his  lordship's  Jeremiad,  as  also 
his  praise,  shortly  after,  of  the  miserable  Castlereagh,  for  his 
"judgment  and  great  political  abilities"  displayed  in  the  concoc- 
tion of  this  bill. 

The  unequivocal  symptoms  of  dissent  and  disapproval  to 
which  his  audience  gave  free  vent,  induced  his  lordship  to 
shorten  his  speech ;  and  after  a  brief  exortation  to  renewed 
exertion,  he  gave  place  to  Mr.  O'Connell,  who  thus  addressed 
the  meeting  : — 

"  I  have  come  to  this  meeting,  gentlemen,  to  make  a  communica- 
tion which,  I  need  scarcely  say,  derives  much  more  importance  from 
the  venerated  persons  who  have  sent  it,  than  from  the  humble 
individual  who  is  the  bearer  of  it.  It  is  from  our  highly  honoured 
prelates.  (Hear,  hear.)  As  the  servant,  first  of  the  board,  and  next 
of  those  revered  personages,  I  will  read  it  if  I  am  allowed  permission. 
(Read,  read.)  It  is  a  pastoral  address,  gentlemen,  fraught  with  as 
much  wisdom  as  piety — remarkable  for  talent,  moderation,  and 
meekness.  I  am  not  astonished  that  you  should  feel  impatient  to 
know  its  import.   I  will  forthwith  gratify  your  anxieties.   (Cheering.) 

' ' '  Pastoral  Address  of  the  Eouian  Catholic  Prelates  (assembled  in  Dublin, 
May  26,  1813)  to  the  Clergy  and  Laity  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Churches  in 
Ireland. 

"  'Revekend  Brothers — Beloved  Children — 
•' '  Peace  be  with  you ! 
"  '  Solicitude  for  the  spiritual  interests  of  our  beloved  flocks  obliges  us  once 

more  to  suspend  the  exercise  of  our  other  pastoral  duties,  in  order  to  deliberate, 

in  common,  upon  the  present  posture  of  our  religious  concerns. 


DANIEL    O  CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  325 

'  •  '  We  hasten  to  declare  to  you  the  lively  feelings  of  gratitude  excited  in 
our  breasts  by  the  gracious  condescension  of  the  legislature  in  taking  into 
its  favourable  consideration  the  disabilities  which  still  affect  the  Catholic 
body. 

"  'With  these  feelings,  deeply  and  indelibly  impressed  upon  our  hearts,  it 
is  with  the  utmost  distress  of  mind  that  we  are  compelled,  by  a  sense  of  duty, 
to  dissent  (on  some  points  connected  with  our  emancipation)  from  the  opinions 
of  those  virtuous  and  enlightened  statesmen  who  have  so  long  and  so  ably 
advocated  the  cause  of  CathoUc  freedom. 

' ' '  Probably  from  a  want  of  suificient  information,  but  unquestionably  from 
the  most  upright  motives,  they  have  proposed  to  the  legislature  the  adoption 
of  certain  arrangements  respecting  our  ecclesiastical  discipline,  and  particularly 
respecting  the  exercise  of  episcopal  functions,  to  which  it  would  be  imiiossible 
for  us  to  assent  without  incurring  the  guilt  of  schism  ;  inasmuch  as  they 
might,  if  carried  into  effect,  invade  the  spiritual  jurisdiction  of  the  supreme 
pastor,  and  alter  an  important  i)oint  of  our  discipline,  for  which  alteration 
his  concurrence  would,  upon  Catholic  principles,  be  indispensably  necessary. 

' '  '  When  the  quarter  is  considered  from  whence  the  clauses  have  proceeded, 
it  might,  perhaps,  be  imagined,  were  we  to  continue  silent,  that  they  had 
our  unqualified  approbation.  On  this  account  we  deem  it  a  duty  which  we 
owe  to  you,  to  our  country,  and  to  God,  to  declare  in  the  most  public 
manner, 

"  '  That  they  have  not,  and  that,  in  their  present  shape,  they  never  can  have 
our  concurrence. 

"  '  As,  however,  we  have,  upon  all  occasions,  inculcated  the  duty  of  loyalty 
to  oui"  most  gracious  Sovereign  (the  securing  whereof  is  the  professed  object  of 
the  proposed  ecclesiastical  arrangements)  so  we  would  be  always  desirous  to 
give  you  the  most  convincing  proofs,  that  we  are  ready,  in  the  most  exemplary 
manner,  to  practise  it  ourselves. 

"  '  We  have  sworn  to  preserve,  inviolate,  the  allegiance  which  every  subject 
owes  to  his  Sovereign — we  are  not  accused  of  having  violated  our  oaths. 

"  '  Should  any  other  oath,  not  adverse  to  our  religious  principles,  be  yet 
devised,  which  could  remove  the  unfounded  apprehensions  of  any  part  of  our 
countrymen,  we  would  willingly  take  it.  We  owe  it  to  our  God  to  be  free 
from  disloyalty.  We  owe  it  to  oiir  countrymen  to  endeavour,  at  least,  to  be 
free  from  suspicion. 

"  '  Upon  these  grounds,  reverend  brothers — beloved  children,  we 
announce  to  you  the  following  resolutions  which,  after  invoking  the  light  and 
assistance  of  God,  we  have  unanimously  adopted : — 


"  '  First — That  having  seriously  examined  a  copy  of  the  bill,  lately  brought 
into  parliament,  purporting  to  provide  for  the  removal  of  the  civil  and  military 
disqualifications  under  which  his  Majesty's  Roman  Catholic  subjects  labour, 
we  feel  ourselves  bound  to  declare,  that  certain  ecclesiastical  clauses  or 
"  securities"  therein  contained,  are  utterly  incompatible  with  the  discipline  of 
the  Roman  Caiholic  Church,  and  with  the  free  exercise  of  our  religion. 

"  '  Second — That  we  would,  with  the  utmost  willingness,  swear,  should  the 
legislature  require  us  so  to  do, 

"'That  we  will  never  concur  in  the  appointment  or  consecration  of  any 


326.  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

bishop  whom  we  do  not  conscientiously  believe  to  be  of  unimpeachable  loyalty 
and  peaceable  conduct. 

' '  '  And  further — That  we  have  not,  and  that  we  will  not  have,  any  corre- 
spondence or  communication  with  the  chief  pastor  of  our  church,  or  with  any 
person  authorized  to  act  in  his  name,  for  tlie  i^urpose  of  overthrowing  or 
disturbing  the  Protestant  Government,  or  the  Protestant  Cliurch  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland,  or  the  Protestant  Church  of  Scotland,  as  by  law 
established. 

"'Reverend  Brothers — Beloved  Childi-en — The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  and  the  communion  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  be  with  you  all. 

"  (Signed) 

"  Richard  O'Reilly,  Archbishop  of  Armagh  and      John  Power. 

Primate  of  all  Ireland.  William  Coppiuger,  B;shop  of  Cloyne. 
J.  T.  Troy,  Archbishop  of  Dublin  and  Primate      N.  P.  Archdeacon. 

of  Ireland.  p.  Ryan. 

Thomas  Bray,  Archbishop  of  Cashel.  Peter  M'MuUen,  , 

Patrick  J.  Plunket,  Bishop  of  Meath.  J.Young,  ^bi/ pruxy. 

Daniel  Murray,  Coadjutor  of  Dublin.  Daniel  Delany,     J 

F.  Moylan,  Bishop  of  Cork.  Richard   Mansfield,  Vicar-Capitular,  Diocese 
C.  Sughrue  {by  jn'oxy).  Bishop  of  Kerry.  of  Ossory. 

Edmund  Derry.  Oliver  O'Kelly,  Vicar-Capitular,  Tuam. 

Charles  O'Donnell.  G.  Plunket,  Vicar-Capitular,  Elphin. 

Farrell  O'Reilly.  p.  Daly,  Vicar-Capitular,  Ardagh. 

James  O'Shaughnessy.  Denis  Mannin,  Vicar-Capitular,  Galway. 

Peter  M'Laughlin,  Bishop  of  Derry.  John  Flinn,  Vicar-Capitular." 
James  Murphy. 


"  To  this  document,"  continued  Mr.  O'Connell,  "  I  was  requested 
to  call  the  attention  of  this  board,  whom  the  authors  have  ever 
honoured  with  their  esteem ;  at  all  events  I  was  desired  to  deposit  it 
in  the  Lands  of  the  secretary.  I  have  discharged  one  part  of  my 
duty,  I  perceive  not  without  the  approbation  of  the  meeting ;  I  will 
now  discharge  the  remainder,  (handing  it  to  the  secretary,)  troubling 
you  with  very  few  observations  indeed.  (Loud  cries  of  hear,  hear.) 
This  communication  is  such  as  has  been  usually  received  at  periods 
much  less  important  than  the  present.  It  contains  no  assertion  be- 
yond the  strict  bounds  of  episcopal  propriety.  The  only  objection  I 
can  possibly  see  to  its  being  received  with  respectful  thankfulness 
and  cordiality,  arises  from  a  consideration  personal  to  myself,  (hear, 
hear.)  On  the  last  occasion,  two  prelates  condescended  to  attend 
here,  and  made  in  their  own  persons  the  communication  of  their 
brotherhood  ;  the  task  has  this  time  devolved  to  hands  much  more  in- 
competent and  less  entitled  to  consideration ;  and  I  admit,  that  this 
undesirable  circumstance  might,  if  there  were  no  justification  for  it, 
be  a  very  substantial  reason  why  you  would  not  now  feel  so  well 
pleased  as  beibre.     But,  gentlemen,  there  exists  what  you  will,  I  am 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,  M.P.  327 

sure,  think  a  sufficient  justification  for  it.  There  was  a  distinguished 
prelate  to  whom  the  duty  of  waiting  on  this  board  was  delegated. 
From  this  most  Rev.  prelate — His  Grace,  the  Archbishop,  Dr.  Mur- 
ray— I  had  this  morning  the  honour  of  a  lettei',  intimating  his  wish 
that  I  should  appear  here  for  him.  I  wrote  back  to  him  stating  that 
I  should  much  rather  see  himself  in  attendance  ;  and  I  got  an  answer; 
alleging,  as  the  sole  reason  of  his  intended  absence,  a  sufficient  one, 
as  I  am  quite  sure  you  all  must  at  once  allow,  that  he  would  be  kept 
away  by  avocations  connected  witli  the  discharge  of  his  sacred  func- 
tions, too  urgent  to  affi^rdhim  leisure  or  admit  of  delay.  (Hear,  hear.) 
Enemies  might  have  suggested  that  there  was  an  appearance  of  dis- 
respect, or  of  some  want  of  sufficient  attention  in  the  variance  from 
the  formality  that  was  observed  on  the  last  occasion,  but  I  flatter  my- 
self, it  is  now  quite  clear  to  every  gentleman  that  it  was  an  appearance 
only.  (Yes,  yes.)  The  motion,  then,  which  I  intend  to  submit,  of  a  re- 
spectful vote  of  thanks  to  the  prelates,  members  of  the  Catholic  Synod, 
for  their  communication,  and  for  the  zeal  and  vigilance  they  always 
evince  on  behalf  of  the  Catholic  Church,  will,  of  course,  have  your 
approbation,  and  the  loud  and  unanimous  concurrence  of  the  people 
of  Ireland.     (Hear,  hear.) 

"  Indeed  I  may  venture  to  say,  that  there  was  no  motion  ever  sub- 
mitted to  this  board,  to  which  assent  will  have  been  so  completely 
yielded  as  a  matter  of  course. 

"  The  Catholic  prelates  of  Ireland  deserve  your  eternal  gratitude 
They  have  stood  forward  manfully,  and  without  disguise,  to  assist  you 
in  getting  rid  of  a  bill  which  purported  to  be  for  your  relief,  but 
which,  in  reality,  would  have  perpetuated  your  degradation  and  your 
slavery.  (Loud  cheers.)  The  prelates,  if  they  had  given  their  coun- 
tenance and  support  to  this  bill,  might  have  consulted  and  advanced 
their  own  worldly  interests.  But  the  sacred  calls  of  duty  made 
them  reject  such  considerations  with  contempt.  It  is  not  possible  to 
impute  any  motives  for  their  opposition  to  the  measure,  but  such  as 
must  indisputably  have  originated  in  conscience  and  a  sense  of  duty. 
(Cheers.) 

"  And  they  were  right,  clearly  right.  They  were  right — I  take  it  in 
the  spiritual  matter  involved  in  the  new  regulations ;  and  they  were 
most  manifestly  right  in  its  temporal  operation.  Nothing  but  mischief 
and  degradation,  nothing,  I  repeat,  but  the  heaviest  mischiefs  and  the 
most  utter  degradation  could  have  resulted  from  the  commission  which 
was  proposed  in  this  bill.  For  see  by  whom  it  was  to  have  been 
formed  and  selected,  and  of  whom  it  was  likely  to  be  composed.     It 


328  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

was  to  have  been  tlie  creation  of  the  Duke  of  Richmond,  of  that  man 
whose  administration  has  been  signalized  by  a  sullen  and  sulky  oppo- 
sition to  the  Catholics  of  Ireland ;  and  whose  most  distinguishing 
characteristic  as  a  chief  governor  is,  that  he  continues  bitterly  to  hate 
the  papists — he  knows  not  why  nor  wherefore.     (Hear,  hear.) 

"Well,  this  hopeful  commission,  this  'charter  of  emancipation, 
(Laughter  and  cheers,)  was  to  be  framed  by  his  Grace  the  Duke  of 
Richmond,  and  upon  whom  is  it  likely  that  his  choice  would  fall  ? 
Recollect,  however,  that  before  his,  before  even  his  selection  com- 
menced, you  were  certain  of  having,  as  president  of  this  commission, 
that  ludicrous  enemy  of  ours,  who  has  got,  in  jest,  the  names  he  de- 
serves in  good  earnest,  of  '  Orange  Peel.'  (Hear,  hear.)  A  raw 
youth,  squeezed  out  of  the  workings  of  I  know  not  what  factory  in 
England,  who  began  his  parliamentary  career  by  vindicating  the  gra- 
tuitous destruction  of  our  brave  soldiers  in  the  murderous  expedition 
to  Walcheren,  and  was  sent  over  here  before  he  got  rid  of  the  fop- 
pery of  perfumed  handkerchiefs  and  thin  shoes,  upon  the  ground,  I 
suppose,  that  he  had  given  a  specimen  of  his  talents  for  vindication, 
that  might  be  useful  to  the  present  and  future  administrations  of 
Ireland  ;  in  short,  that  he  was  a  lad  ready  to  vindicate  any  thing — 
every  thing ! 

"  This  special  vindicator  was  to  be  at  the  head  of  the  proposed 
commission.  And  let  me  dismiss  him  for  ever,  by  venturing  to 
conjecture  what  he  may  hereafter  be  in  our  country.  But  no ; 
I  will  not — I  cannot  estimate  his  future  qualities.  It  is  impossible 
to  say  what  the  man  may  be  in  old  age,  who,  young — with  the  first 
impressions  of  nature  about  him — with  a  heart,  uncontaminated, 
at  least,  by  much  intercourse  with  the  world — with  any  charities  of 
his  nature  unsullied — with  any  milk  of  human  kindness  unexhausted — 
whose  first  step  in  life  was  the  vindication  of  the  most  foolish  and 
the  most  cruel — the  most  absurd,  and  the  most  fatal — the  most  use- 
less, and  the  most  murderous  expedition  that  human  insanity  ever 
dii-ected,  or  human  depravity  ever  applauded.  (Great  cheering.) 

"  After  this  worthy  president  would  have  come — the  chosen  of 
his  Grace — first,  we  should  have  had,  I  presume,  my  Lord  Man- 
ners !  a  gentleman,  certainly,  by  birth,  education,  and  in  deportment, 
but,  1  can  safely  assert,  quite  as  ignorant  of  the  state  of  the  Irish 
people,  and  as  unacquainted  with  their  wants,  wishes,  feelings,  and 
dispositions,  as  he  was  the  day  before  his  arrival  in  this  country. 
Surrounded  by,  and  pleased  with  those  men  only  who  are  inclined 
and  interested  to  deceive  him,  he  has  received  their  miserably  mistaken 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  329 

opinions,  and  adopted  their  bigotry  with  a  facility  quite  inconsistent 
with  a  sound  judgment  or  an  enlarged  understanding — and  still 
more,  incompatible  with  a  good  heart. 

"  In  truth,  he  seems  just  such  a  man  as  bigotry  would  select  as 
her  choice  instrument.  Too  decent  to  inspire  any  disgust — too 
polite  to  give  personal  offence — too  weak  to  discriminate  between  the 
artful  misrepresentation  of  bigotry  and  the  plain  language  of  truth 
and  with  the  natural  propensity  of  a  small  mind  to  the  practical 
details  of  intolerance.  (Hear,  hear.)  He  has  no  connection  with 
this  country — no  interest  in  its  prosperity.  He  has  no  stake  in  its 
lands,  nor  does  he  possess  a  habitation  or  a  dwelling  of  his  own  in 
Ireland.  He  is  a  dry  lodger — in  furnished  lodgings  ;  and  when  the 
hour  of  his  departure  shall  arrive — and  may  it  soon  come — he  will 
only  have  to  put  his  hat  upon  his  head,  to  turn  into  bills  his  large 
savings  on  the  ten  thousand  a  year,  which  the  poor  people  of  Ireland 
pay  him,  and  forget  us  as  rapidly  as  we  shall  consign  his  name 
to  oblivion.  (Cheers.) 

"  Next  to  my  Lord  Manners,  we  should  have  been  sure  to  find 
upon  the  list  of  these  commissioners,  the  Duke  of  Richmond's  privy 
councillor,  the  Right  Hon.  Doctor  Duigenan  !  he,  who  was  so  specially 
appointed  by  his  Grace  for  ecclesiastical  affairs,  and  for  none  other, 
that  he  was  very  aptly  compared  to  the  tanner's  dog,  kept  chained  aU 
day,  and  only  let  loose  at  night.  This  religious  bull-dog  is  particularly 
fitted  for  worrying  popish  bishops,  no  tanner's  dog  ever  hating  a 
thief  at  night,  as  he  does  a  popish  priest  in  the  noon-day.  It  is  not 
in  the  nature  of  the  canine  guardian,  either  of  the  tanned  leather  or 
of  the  ascendancy,  to  feel  pity  or  show  mercy.  (Hear,  hear.)  Poor 
popery  would  soon  have  been  torn  to  pieces  beneath  his  vile  tooth. 

"Either  Mr.  William  Saurin,  the  attorney-general,  a  man  after 
Doctor  Duigenan's  own  heart  (hear,  hear),  or  Jack  Gitfard,  would 
have  been  the  third  commissioner.  I  suppose  the  choice  would  fall 
on  Saurin  ;  for,  although  he  is  as  either  of  the  other  two,  and  pretty 
much  on  a  par  with  them  in  rancour,  yet  I  will  very  candidly  confess, 
I  think  him  rather  superior  in  other  respects  to  Giffard.  He  would, 
therefore,  be  chosen  ;  I  take  it  for  granted  ;  and  what  a  state  this 
would  be  for  Ireland? — the  grandson  of  a  French  Huguenot  sitting  in 
judgment  on  the  Catholic  hierarchy  of  the  land!  A  man,  belonging, 
in  fact,  to  the  only  sect  of  Protestants  who,  even  under  persecution, 
asserted  the  atrocious  and  unshaken  principle  of  intolerance,  and 
afforded  to  those  who  deprived  them  of  liberty  of  conscience,  the 
semblance  of  an  excuse  by  avowing,  that  if  they  Mere  themselves 


330  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

in  power  they  would  persecute  in  their  turn  !  With  what  delight 
would  Mr.  Saurin  hold  his  inquisitions,  under  the  pretence  of 
examining  into  the  loyalty  of  the  candidates  for  the  mitre,  but 
for  the  purpose  of  discovering  and  excluding  the  talent,  the  in- 
tegrity, and  the  piety  of  our  priesthood  ! 

"  And,  if  these  commissioners — if  Saurin  and  Duigenan,  Peel  and 
Lord  Manners,  should  not  be  sufficient  to  exclude  from  the  prelacy 
all  the  piety,  the  integrity,  and  the  talent  of  the  Catholic  priesthood, 
should  they  so  neglect  their  duty,  as  to  allow  a  single  worthy  man  to 
exercise  episcopal  functions  in  Ireland,  the  Lord  Lieutenant  would, 
under  the  '  charter  of  emancipatiorC — for  I  like  the  expression — 
have  had  it  in  his  power  to  remove  them  from  that  office,  and  to 
substitute  others  who  would  carefully  abstain  from  committing 
any  similar  mistake. 

"  So  that,  if  this  bill  had  passed  into  a  law,  some  accident  might, 
perhaps,  have  given  us,  at  one  time  or  the  other,  one  respectable 
bishop.  It  would  have  been  impossible  that  we  could  have  had 
a  second,  or  any  other,  save  from  among  the  most  supple  and 
pliant  tools  and  slaves  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Castle. 

"  I  will  not  task  you  as  Catholics,  but  I  will^  boldly  demand  of 
you  as  Irishmen,  whether  you  do  not  rejoice  at  having  escaped  from 
an  act  of  parliament,  the  necessary  consequences  of  which  I  have 
thus  laid  befoi'e  you?  (Hear,  hear,  hear.)  Do  you  not  rejoice, 
that  the  corrupt  influence  of  the  government  is  not  to  be  extended 
to  your  church,  and  that  there  remains,  and  will  remain,  in  Ireland, 
one  spot  free  from  ministerial  pollution,  and  that  your  bishops 
are  not  to  be  degraded  to  the  subserviency  of  gangers  and  tide- 
waiters,  nor  your  priesthood  to  the  dependence  of  police  constables. 
(Hear,  heai-.)  If  your  feelings  and  opinions  be,  as  your  approbation 
of  those  sentiments  proclaim  them  to  be,  accordant  with  mine — if  you 
dread  as  Catholics,  and  abhor  as  Irishmen,  the  extension  of  the 
influence  of  the  servants  of  the  crown,  an  influence  equally  fatal  to 
religion  and  to  liberty,  you  will  join,  with  all  your  hearts,  in 
the  unanimous  adoption  of  my  motion.    (Loud  cheers.) 

"  The  bishops  have  stood  between  you  and  this  bill ;  they  have 
stood  between  you  and  the  mephitic  breath  of  ministerial  corruption  ; 
they  have  stood  in  the  front  of  the  battle  of  Ireland,  and  they 
deserve  that,  without  any  regard  to  the  event,  the  first  praise 
and  glory  should  be  theirs.  Recollect,  too,  that  your  refusal  to 
adopt  my  motion,  if  it  were  possible  you  should  refuse  to  adopt  it, 
would  imply  an  approbation  of  this  most  paltry  and  misconceived 


DANIEL    O  CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  331 

bill.  To  refuse  your  thanks  to  tlie  Catholic  prelates  of  Ireland, 
would  be  to  declare  that  they  deserve  censure.  If  you  think  so, 
reject  my  motion  ;  but,  no,  no,  it  is  impossible  you  could  bear  the 
name  or  form  of  Irishmen,  and  censure  the  rejection  of  this  absurd 
and  mischievous  bill.  (Cheers.) 

"  I  shall  say  one  word  more  and  conclude.  Perhaps  there  are 
amongst  you  men  who  would  confide  in  the  liberality  of  your  enemies. 
If  such  there  be,  let  him,  I  entreat,  but  recollect  the  ruffian  shout 
of  English  insolence,  with  which  the  declaration  of  the  majority 
against  the  only  valuable  clause  in  this  bill  was  received.  Oh  ! 
may  that  be  the  last  shout  of  English  victory  over  poor,  fallen,  and 
degraded  Ireland  !  (Hear,  hear.)  May  the  measure  of  English  ini- 
quities, and  of  English  triumphs  over  us  be  full,  and  the  day-star 
of  Ireland  at  length  arise  !  (Hear,  hear,  hear.) 

*'  But  they  have  triumphed,  they  have  defeated,  and  they  have 
insulted  us.  Oh,  fortunate  Napoleon !  it  is  thus  the  leaders  of 
your  foes  have  ever  conducted  themselves.  Of  little  avail  was  your 
victory  at  Lutzen  to  you,  compared  with  this  victory !  The  men 
who  defeated  your  legions  at  Barrossa  and  Vimiera,  at  Badajoz  and 
Salamanca,  are  degraded  although  they  are  brave,  and  are  insulted 
because  of  their  fidelity.  Their  valour  is  disheartened  by  being 
refused  its  just  reward,  and  their  honour  is  insulted,  and  tarnished, 
and  trod  under  the  hoof  of  the  yelling  and  triumphant  spirit  of 
English  bigotry  ! 

"  They  defeated  you,  but  you  are  now  revenged ;  your  English 
allies  have  defeated  them,  and  added  contumely  and  disgrace  to  defeat. 
Without  a  bribe  or  a  subsidy  from  you,  have  these  English  fought 
your  battles  ;  and  if  these  your  most  useful  allies  have  been  paid,  it 
has  been  out  of  another  treasury  than  yours.  (Hear,  hear.)  I  shall 
say  no  more — I  cannot  trust  myself  on  this  maddening  subject. 
This  last  insult  is  indelibly  written  on  mine  and  every  other  Irish 
heart.  (Hear,  hear.)  There  it  shall  live  for  ever  ;  we  may  forgive 
it,  but  it  shall  never,  never,  be  forgotten.  (Hear,  hear,  and  cheering 
for  several  minutes.)     Mr.  O'Connell  then  moved — 

*'  That  the  most  respectful  thanks  of  the  Catholic  board  be  given  to  the  Most 
Rev.  and  Right  Rev.  the  Catholic  Prelates  in  Ireland,  for  their  communication 
to  us  this  day,  and  for  their  ever  vigilant  and  zealous  attention  to  the  in- 
terests of  the  Catholic  church  in  Ireland. 

"  Major  Bryan  seconded  the  motion,  and  Mr.  Byrne  spoke  warmly 
in  its  support. 


332  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

"  Anthony  Strong  Hussey,  Esq.,  rose  to  move  an  amendment. 
It  was  to  the  effect,  '  that  all  the  words  after  the  word  "  communica- 
tion" should  be  omitted ;'  that  is  to  say,  thank  the  prelates  simply 
for  the  communication  they  had  that  day  made  to  the  board  through 
Mr.O'Connell,  and  to  leave  out  that  branch  of  the  motion  which  went 
to  thank  them  for  '  their  ever  vigilant  and  zealous  attention  to  the  in- 
terests of  the  Catholic  church  in  Ireland.'  Mr.  Hussey  supported  his 
amendment  with  arguments  to  the  following  general  effect : — 1st,  that 
the  Catholic  laity  ought  to  have  taken  time  to  decide  fully  and  finally 
upon  the  obnoxious  clauses  ;  and  that  as  the  Catholic  prelates 
had  seen  fit  to  pronounce  so  decidedly  against  those  clauses,  they 
ought  to  have  gone  more  into  detail  than  they  had  on  the  subject. 
They  had  talked,  for  instance,  of  the  dangers  of  schism  ;  but  their 
want  of  explaining  how  those  dreadful  results  could  come  about, 
threw  him  and  a  vast  portion  of  the  public  into  great  perplexity,  as 
all  their  wit  could  not  devise  the  process  of  mind  by  which  their 
lordships  arrived  at  this  conclusion. 

"  2ndly.  That  they  had  not  only  not  explained  what  schism  they 
dreaded,  but  had  not  stated  what  measures  of  precaution  they  would 
have  advised,  nor  what  substitutes  they  would  have  proposed  for  the 
clauses  in  question. 

"  He  (Mr.  Hussey)  would  have  had  their  lordships  to  have 
deliberated  upon  what  could  be  done  in  regard  of  giving  the  crown 
the  wished-for  security,  and  at  the  same  time  preserving  inviolable 
the  discipline  and  free  exercise  of  the  Catholic  religion. 

"  The  tone  and  wording  of  Mr.  Hussey's  address  were  of  scant 
enough  courtesy  towards  the  prelates :  but  a  worse  spirit  with  regard 
to  them  was  speedily  to  be  developed  in  the  discussion. 

'-  At  this  point,  (Mr.  Hussey  having  concluded,  and  his  amend- 
ment being  seconded  by  Mr.  Boulger,)  Dr.  Dromgoole,  supported  by 
Lord  Ffrench,  interposed,  to  requii*e  of  Mr.  Hussey  to  decide  at  once 

whether  he  would '  make  his  stand  against  the 

original  resolution  on  the  ground  of  his  amendment,  or  on  that  of  the 
standing  order,'  (of.a  week's  notice,)  to  which  he  had  adverted,  as  an 
ultimate  means  of  opposition. 

"  Mr.  Bellew  (Counsellor  Bellew,  whose  irreverent,  un-Catholic  and 
dishonest  speech  we  shall  have  presently  to  notice,)  contended  that 
Mr.  Hussey  should  in  no  way  be  held  bound.  '  If  (he  said,)  it  were 
not  exactly  regular  for  the  honourable  gentleman,  the  mover  of  the 
amendment,  to  have  recourse  to  the  standing  order,  he  (Mr.  Bellew,) 
would  urge  the  meeting  to  assent  to  adjournment,  as  it  would  be  the 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  333 

means  of  preventing  himself  from  introducing  much  unpleasant  mat- 
ter, touching  the  conduct  of  the  bishops,  which  he  felt  it  his  duty, 
however  reluctantly,  to  indulge  in.' 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  said,  he  for  one  would  not  allow  the  board  to  be 
gagged  by  instalments.  The  Castle  had  already  sought  to  put  an  ex- 
tinguisher upon  the  board. 

"  Mr.  M'Donnell  (the  notorious  ^neas)  conceiving  that  Mr. 
O'Connell's  resolution  went  only  to  thank  the  bishops,  in  earnest 
language,  for  their  kind  communication,  without  entering  into  the 
merits  of  the  clauses,  gave  it  his  support. 

"  Dr.  Dromgoole  wished  that  no  impression  of  this  kind  should  be 
suffered  for  one  instant  to  remain  on  the  mind  of  the  meeting.  He 
distinctly  declared,  that  the  resolution  of  Mr.  O'ConneU  involved  a 
consideration  of  the  clauses,  going  decidedly  with  the  most  rev, 
and  right  rev.  prelates  to  protest  against  those  clauses.  (Loud 
cheering  followed  this  declaration.) 

"  Sir  Edward  Bellew  then  rose,  for  the  purpose,  as  he  said,  of 
setting  gentlemen  right  upon  this  subject  ..... 

A  mistake  had  arisen,  and  he  (Sir  Edward  BeUew)  had  it  in  his 
power  to  explain  it.  Mr.  Canning  did  make  a  communication  to  Dr. 
Troy,  upon  the  principle  of  the  clauses  which  he  intended  to  pro- 
duce. (Hear,  hear.)  I  saw  it.  (Hear,  hear.)  Dr.  Troy  did  answer 
that  communication ;  and  Mr.  Canning  wrote  a  second  time  to  him. 
Dr.  Troy,  in  answer  to  this  communication,  referred  Mr.  Canning  to 
a  letter  which  he  had  written  to  Lord  Donoughmore,  expressing  his 
opinion  upon  the  clauses.  All  this  I  speak  from  my  own  certain  and 
positive  knowledge.  (Hear,  hear.)  I  derive  my  information  from 
the  venerated  and  much-respected  prelate  himself.  (Hear,  hear.) 
In  the  letter  to  Loi'd  Donoughmore  he  very  distinctly  stated  that 
those  clauses  were  inadmissible.  (Hear,  hear.)  But  those  ivere  not 
Mr.  Canning's  clauses. 

"  Boldly  and  fearlessly,  continued  Sir  Edward,  I  declare,  that  Dr. 
Troy  did  agree  in  the  principle  of  Mr.  Canning's  clauses  ;  and  for 
the  truth  of  my  assertion  I  refer  to  the  most  rev.  prelate  himself. 
(Loud  cheers.) 

"  But  I  also  declare,  that  he  did  not  approve  of  Lord  Castlereagh's. 
He  did  approve  of  the  principle  of  Mr.  Canning's  clauses.  /  assert 
it  jor  a  positive  fact ;  because  Dr.  Troy  told  me  so  himself.,  that  he 
had  suggested  certain  clauses  ivith  the  concurrence  of  the  Bishops. 
This  suggestion  respected  the  admission  of  a  certain  number  of  Ca- 
tholic prelates   into    the    board:   and  it    was  positively   on    their 


334  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

suggestion  that  the  clauses  were  introduced  into  the  bill !  (Hear, 
hear.) 

"  Sir  Edward  Bellew  then  entered  on  the  question  immediately 
before  the  chair. 

"  If  the  board  adopted  the  second  part  of  the  resolution,  they 
bound  themselves  completely  to  the  decision  of  the  prelates,  and  pre- 
cluded themselves  from  the  benefit  of  free  action,  should  the  legisla- 
ture offer  to  concede  at  any  future  time,  upon  receiving  securities 
which,  though  not  interfering  with  the  existence  or  interests  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  religion,  might  yet  involve  some  point  of  church 
discipline ;  which,  having  been  altered  before,  might,  of  course,  be 
altered    again :    but    which    the    bishops    might    refusk    to 

ALTER    (!!!)" 

Thank  Heaven  !  the  tone  and  spirit  of  Catholic  society  have 
so  far  improved  since  1813,  that  no  Catholic  would  now  dare 
to  face  a  popular  assembly  in  Ireland,  with  a  proposition  flying 
in  the  face  of  the  Catholic  prelacy  on  a  matter  within  their 
jurisdiction!  But  during  the  discussions  of  1845,  on  the 
unhappy  and  uncanonical  Bequests  and  the  Infidel  Colleges'  Acts, 
there  were  not  wanting  some  whisperings  and  mutterings  of  this 
un- Catholic  and  shameful  description. 

"  Sir  Edward  Bellew  went  on  to  contend  for  the  lawfulness !  of 
Catholics  opposing  their  bishops  under  such  circumstances  ! 

"  He  concluded  by  saying,  that  on  the  ground  of  the  necessity  of 
reserving  this  power  of  rebellion  (as,  in  plain  truth,  it  would  deserve 
to  be  styled)  he  could  approve  of  no  more  of  the  resolution  than  the 
expression  of  thanks  to  the  prelates  for  having  communicated  with  the 
board  their  opinions  ;  and  should,  therefore,  have  to  support  Mr. 
Hussey's  amendment. 

"  The  original  resolution  was  warmly  supported  by  Nicholas 
Mahon. 

"  Counsellor  Bellew  then  rose  and  addressed  the  board. 

"  He  commenced  by  reviewing  the  various  opinions  that  had  been 
expressed  as  to  the  bearing  of  the  amendment,  and  declaring  that  he 
would  offer,  even  that  the  amendment  should  be  withdrawn,  *  if  it 
were  declared  that  it  was  not  intended  by  the  original  vote  to 
express  approbation  of  the  resolutions  and  conduct  of  the  bishops  ! !' 

"  Let    it,  therefore,   be    remembered,    said    Mr.    Bellew,   that    I 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  335 

have  not  sought  this  discussion.  Those  who  now  come  forward  as 
the  friends  of  that  respected  body,  (the  bishops)  will  take  upon  them- 
selves the  consequences,  so  far  as  the  discussion  may  lead  to  obser- 
vations not  very  favourable,  at  least,  to  the  discretion,  good  sense, 
candour,  and  conciliatory  spirit  of  our  Roman  Catholic  prelates,  as 
manifested  in  their  lately-published  resolutions." 

After  this  audacious  exordium,  Mr.  Bellew  proceeded  to 
make  hollow  and  insulting  protestations  of  his  respect  and  ad- 
miration for  the  prelates  !  ! 

He  then  alluded  to  Sir  Edward  Bellew's  extraordinary 
announcement  with  respect  to  Doctor  Troy,  and  contended  that 
the  partial  changes  which  had  been  made  in  the  much-talked-of 
clauses,  did  not  justify  the  epithet  "  schismatical,"  as  subsequently 
applied  to  them. 

"  The  material  difference  (said  he)  consists  in  this — that  the 
board  of  commissioners,  as  proposed  in  the  original  clauses,  was  to 
consist  of  only  five  persons,  and  that  these  five  persons  were  to  be 
Roman  Catholics ;  whereas  the  same  board,  as  proposed  in  the  amended 
clauses,  was  to  consist  of  an  indefinite  number,  among  whom  some 
were  to  be  Protestants. 

"  I  admit  that  it  was  injudicious  not  to  have  fixed  the  precise 

number. I  think  it,  indeed, 

certain,  that  if  the  bill  had  proceeded,  the  precise  number  would  have 
been  fixed  upon  before  it  passed,  if  a  wish  to  that  effect  had  been 
suggested  !  but  surely  this  circumstance  could  not  justify  the  impu- 
tation  of  '  schism,'    as  imputed   to    the  adoption  of  these  clauses. 

It  is  well  known  that 
in  the  year  1799,  ten  of  our  bishops,  including  the  four  archbishops, 
had  consented  to  a  Veto  exclusively  in  the  Crown,  by  the  constitution, 
essentially  Protestant ;  and  at  this  day  there  is  an  admixture  of 
Catholics  and  Protestants  in  the  visitors  of  Maynooth  College,  with- 
out the  imputation  of  '  schism'  in  the  arrangement. 

,         .         .  But  it  appears  from  a 

publication  of  Doctor  Milner's,  that  one  ground  for  such  an  imputa- 
tion, and  for  the  asserted  incompatibility  with  the  discipline  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  church  is,  that  the  bishop  is  to  be  presented  for  a 
certificate  of  loyalty  after  he  has  been  consecrated  a  bishop,  and 
appointed  to  a  diocese  ;  and  that  to  refuse  to  allow  him  to  act  after 
such  consecration    and  appointment,  for   want  of   a   certificate  of 


336  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

loyalty,  would  be  incompatible  with  the  discipline  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  and  would  amount  to  schism. 

"  Now,  it  is  be  observed — first,  that  this 
objection  applied  to  the  clauses  in  their  original  state,  in  which 
Doctor  Troy  had  declared  his  readiness  to  acquiesce  in  them. 

Secondly — and  here  I  request 

the  most  anxious  attention  of  the  meeting — I  was  well  aware  that, 
according  to  the  discipline  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  a  person 
consecrated  a  bishop,  and  appointed  to  a  diocese,  could  not,  in 
ordinary  cases,  be  deprived  of  jurisdiction  ;  and  I  did  not  mention 
the  circumstance,  and  had  it  communicated  to  Doctor  Troy,  with  an 
intimation  that  I  thought  (!)  that  under  the  words  used  in  the  bill, 
the  party  presented  for  a  certificate  of  loyalty  might  be  presented 
immediately  on  his  nomination  and  before  his  consecration,  as  well  as 
after,  which  would  entirely  remove  the  objection  "! ! ! 

Mr.  Bellew  was,  however,  graciously  pleased  to  add,  that  he 
did  not  ask  his  personal  assurances  to  be  implicitly  relied  on, 
but  that  express  words  to  carry  out  his  interpretation  would, 
"  there  could  be  no  doubt"  be  introduced,  on  their  being  sug- 
gested ! 

It  will  be  seen  how  completely  depraved  this  man's  mind  was, 
that  in  this  matter  of  the  certificate  he  could  only  see,  or  perhaps 
would  only  see,  the  difficulties  of  a  regulation  of  ecclesiastical 
discipline ;  and  in  no  degree  whatever  the  gross  and  intolerable 
insult  and  degradation  involved  in  the  sending  our  bishops  to 
sue  out  a  certificate  of  loyalty  III 

The  rest  of  this  audacious  and  revolting  speech  was  of  a 
piece  with  what  went  before. 

"  Now,  my  lord  (the  chairman.  Lord  Trimleston),  what  has  been 
the  conduct  of  our  respectable  prelates  ?  .         .         .         .     Did 

they  manifest  that  desire  of  forwarding  the  bill,  i*emoving  objections, 
and  endeavouring  to  conciliate  all  parties,  which  the  public  of  all 
persuasions  had  a  right  to  expect  from  them  ?  Did  they  candidly 
state  their  objection  ;  and  suggest,  at  the  same  time,  the  easy  and 
ready  manner  in  which  it  might  be  removed — the  method  which  I 
had  myself,  through  a  friend,  made  known  to  them  (! ! !) 
They  have  anxiously  (shall  I  say  gladly^  availed 
themselves  of  the  objection  ;  and  studiously  kept  back  from  suggest- 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,  M.P.  337 

ing  the  easy  means  of  removing  it — of"  which,  from  what  I  havk 

MENTIONED,  THEY  CANNOT  PLEAD  IGNORANCE  !  !  Is  this  the  Con- 
duct of  which  we  are  to  express  approbation  ?  Is  such  approbation 
the  specimen  we  are  to  afford  of  our  earnest  desire  to  concur  in 
removing  prejudice  and  difficulty  on  each  side,  and  to  meet  our  Pro- 
testant fellow-subjects  half  way  in  the  mutual  progress  to  general 
reconciliation  F" 

It  really  requires  an  effort  of  considerable  patience,  even  at 
this  distance  of  time,  when  thirty-three  years  have  nearly 
elapsed  since  the  delivery  of  the  odious  sentiments  we  have 
quoted,  to  read  through  the  speech  which  contained  them. 
The  tone  of  insolent  assumption,  dictation,  and  audacious  re- 
proof that  pervades  it,  would  render  impossible  its  public  de- 
livery at  the  present  day ;  and  that  such  is  the  case  now,  is 
mainly  owing  to  the  determined  stand  taken  at  the  meeting  we 
have  been  dwelling  on,  as  well  as  at  other  meetings  of  the 
period  against  the  un-Catholic  and  un-Christian  spirit  which 
prompted  such  a  display  as  that  we  have  been  canvassing. 

Of  Mr.  Bellew,  personally,  we  shall  have  more  to  speak 
when  we  have  concluded  the  notice  of  the  comnmnications 
between  the  bishops  and  the  Catholic  board.  Meantime,  it 
will  be  enough  to  say  of  what  has  not  yet  been  noticed  of  his 
speech,  that  it  was  directed  to  bringing  forward  what  he  called 
proofs  of  the  safety  of  allowing  Protestants  to  intermeddle  with 
Catholic  affairs,  and  to  renewed  advocacy  of  that  spurious  and 
miserably  base  pretension  at  liberality,  which  would  consist  in  a 
dastardly  sacrifice  of  honour,  principle,  and  duty,  at  the  shrine 
of  a  false  and  utterly  degrading  conciliation. 

We  have  not  been  quite  without  some  passing  indications  of 
a  tendency  to  this  mock-liberality  in  the  discussions  of  last  year, 
but  by  no  means  to  the  same  extent. 

One  of  Mr.  Bellew's  concluding  sentences  charged  those 
who  differed  with  him,  with  giving  the  discussions  of  the  board 
"  a  tendency  towards  widening  and  extending  animosities  be- 
tween Protestant  and  Catholic,"  and  "leading  the  Catholics, 
particularly  the  lower  orders,  to  consider  everything  Pro- 
testant as  odious  ami  inimical  to  their  interests,  and  everything 
English  as  oppressive,  encroaching,  and  hostile." 

z 


338  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

Mr.  O'Connell's  reply,  which  we  are  now  about  to  give, 
includes  an  answer  to  this,  as  to  all  the  other  monstrous  pro- 
positions of  Counsellor  Bellew's  speech. 

We  should  premise  that  Mr.  O' Gorman  interposed  between 
the  speeches  of  Mr.  Bellew  and  Mr.  O'Connell,  with  a  speech 
taking  the  former  roundly  to  task,  and  advocating  the  original 
resolution. 

Mr.  O'Connell  then  rose,  and  spoke  as  follows  : — 

"  At  this  late  hour,  and  in  the  exhausted  state  of  the  meeting,  it 
requires  all  the  impulse  of  duty  to  overcome  my  determination 
to  allow  the  debate  to  be  closed  without  any  reply ;  but  a  speech 
has  been  delivered  by  the  learned  gentleman  (Mr.  Bellew),  which 
I  cannot  suffer  to  pass  without  further  answer. 

"  My  eloquent  friend,  Mr.  O'Gorman,  has  already  powerfully 
exposed  some  of  its  fallacies ;  but  there  were  topics  involved  in  that 
speech  which  he  has  not  touched  upon,  and  which,  it  seems  to  me, 
I  owe  it  to  the  Catholics  and  to  Ireland  to  attempt  to  refute. 

"  It  was  a  speech  of  much  talent,  and  much  labour  and  preparation. 
"  Mr.  Bellew  declared  that  he  had  spoken  extempore. 
"  Well,  (said  Mr.  O'Connell,)  it  was,  certainly,  an  able  speech, 
and  we  shall  see  whether  this  extempore  effort  of  the  learned  gentle- 
man will  appear  in  the  newspapers  to-morrow,  in  the  precise  words 
in  which  it  was  uttered  this  day.  I  have  no  skill  in  prophecy,  if  it 
does  not  happen  ;  and  if  it  does  so  happen,  it  will,  cei'tainly,  be 
a  greater  miracle,  than  that  the  learned  gentleman  should  have  made 
an  artful  and  ingenious,  though,  I  confess,  I  think  a  very  mischievous 
speech,  without  preparation. 

"  I  beg  to  say,  that,  in  replying  to  him  and  to  the  other  supporters 
of  the  amendment,  I  mean  to  speak  with  great  personal  respect 
of  them ;  but  that  I  feel  myself  bound  to  treat  their  arguments 
with  no  small  degree  of  reprehension.  The  learned  gentleman 
naturally  claims  the  greater  part  of  my  attention.  The  ingenuity 
with  which  he  has,  I  trust,  gratuitously  advocated  our  bigoted 
enemies,  and  the  abundance  in  which  he  has  dealt  out  insinuations 
against  the  Catholics  of  Ireland,  entitle  his  discourse  to  the  first 
place  in  my  reprobation.  Yet  I  shall  take  the  liberty  of  saying 
a  passing  word  of  the  other  speakers,  before  I  arrive  at  him  ;  he 
shall  be  last,  but,  I  promise  him,  not  least  in  my  consideration. 

"  The  opposition  to  the  general  vote  of  thanks  to  the  bishops  was 
led  by  my  friend  Mr.  Ilussey.     1  attended  to  his  speech  with  that 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  339 

regard  which  I  always  feel  for  anything  that  conies  from  him  ;  I  at- 
tended to  it  in  the  expectation  of  hearing  from  his  shrewd  and  distinct 
mind  sometliing  like  argument  or  reasoning  against  this  expression 
of  gratitude  to  our  prelates.  But,  my  lord,  I  was  entirely  dis- 
appointed ;  argument  there  was  not  any — reasoning  there  was 
none ;  the  sum  and  substance  of  his  discourse  was  literally  this, 
that  he  (Mr.  Hussey)  is  a  man  of  a  prudent  and  economical  turn 
of  mind,  that  he  sets  a  great  value  on  everything  that  is  good,  that 
praise  is  excellent,  and,  therefore,  he  is  disposed  to  be  even  stingy  and 
niggard  of  it ;  that  my  motion  contains  four  times  too  much  of 
that  excellent  article,  and  he,  therefore,  desii'cs  to  strike  off  three 
parts  of  my  motion,  and  thinks  that  one  quarter  of  his  praise  is 
full  enough  for  any  bishops,  and  this  the  learned  gentleman  calls 
an  amendment.  (Hear,  hear,  and  a  laugh.) 

"  Mr.  Bagot  came  next,  and  he  told  us  that  he  had  made  a  speech 
but  a  fortnight  ago,  which  we  did  not  understand,  and  he  has  now 
added  another  which  is  unintelligible  ;  and  so,  because  he  was 
misunderstood  before,  and  cannot  be  comprehended  at  present,  he 
concludes,  most  logically,  that  the  bishops  are  wrong,  and  that 
he  and  Mr.  Hussey  are  right.  (Hear,  hear,  and  laughter.) 

"  Sir  Edward  Bellew  was  the  next  advocate  of  censure  on  the 
bishops ;  he  entertained  us  with  a  sad  specimen  of  minor  polemics, 
and  drew  a  learned  and  lengthened  distinction  between  essential 
and  non-essential  discipline  ;  and  he  insisted,  that  by  virtue  of  this 
distinction,  that  which  was  called  schism  by  the  Catholic  prelates, 
could  be  changed  into  orthodoxy  by  an  Irish  baronet.  This  dis- 
tinction between  essential  and  non-essential,  must,  therefore,  be 
very  beautiful  and  beautifying.  It  must  be  very  sublime,  as  it  is 
very  senseless,  unless,  indeed,  he  means  to  tell  us,  that  it  contains 
some  secret  allusion  to  our  enemies.  For  example,  that  the  Duke 
of  Richmond  affords  an  instance  of  the  essential,  whilst  my  Lord 
Manners  is  plainly  non-essential ;  that  Paddy  Duigenan  is  essential 
in  perfection,  'and  the  foppish  Peel  is,  in  nature,  without  essence  ; 
that  Jack  Giffard  is,  surely,  of  the  essential  breed,  whilst  Mr.  Willy 
Saurin  is  a  dog  of  a  different  colour.  (Hear,  and  laughter.) 

"  Such,  I  presume,  is  the  plain  English  of  the  worthy  baronet's 
dissertation.  Translated  thus,  it  clearly  enough  alludes  to  the  new 
commission ;  but  it  would  be  more  difficult  to  show  how  it  applied  in 
argument  against  my  motion.  I  really  did  not  expect  so  whimsical  an 
opposition  from  the  honourable  baronet.  If  there  be  any  feeling  of 
disappointment  about  him  for  the  rejection  of  the  double  Veto  bill,  he 


340  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

certainly  ought  not  to  take  revenge  on  the  board,  by  bestowing  on 
ns  all  the  tediousness  of  incomprehensible  and  insane  theology.  I 
altogether  disclaim  reasoning  with  him,  and  I  freely  consent  that 
those  who  relish  his  authority  as  a  theologian,  should  vote  against 
the  prelates. 

"And,  now,  I  address  myself  to  the  learned  brother  of  the  theolo- 
gical baronet.  He  began  by  taking  great  merit  to  himself,  and  demand- 
ing great  attention  from  you,  because  he  says  that  he  has  so  rarely 
addressed  you.  You  should  yield  to  him,  he  says,  because  he  so 
seldom  requires  your  assent.  It  reminds  me  of  the  prayer  of  the 
English  officer  before  battle :  "  Great  Lord,  said  he,  during  the  forty 
years  I  have  lived,  I  never  troubled  you  before  with  a  single  prayer. 
I  have,  therefore,  a  right,  that  you  should  grant  me  one  request,  and 
do  just  as  I  desire,  for  this  once."  (Hear,  hear,  and  laughter.)  Such 
was  the  manner  in  which  the  learned  gentleman  addressed  us  ;  he 
begs  you  will  confide  in  his  zeal  for  your  interests,  because  he  has 
hither  to  confined  that  zeal  to  his  own  (Loud  and  continued  cries  of 
hear,  hear.)  He  desires  that  you  will  rely  upon  his  attention  to  your 
affairs,  because  he  has  been  heretofore  inattentive  to  them  ;  and  that 
you  may  depend  on  his  anxiety  for  Catholic  Emancipation,  inasmuch 
as  he  has  abstained  from  taking  any  step  to  attain  that  measure.  (Hear.) 

"  Quite  different  are  my  humble  claims  on  your  notice — quite 
different  are  the  demands  I  make  on  your  confidence.  I  humbly 
solicit  it,  because  I  have  sacrificed,  and  do  and  ever  will  sacrifice, 
my  interest  to  yours — because  I  have  attended  to  the  varying  posture 
of  your  affairs,  and  sought  for  Catholic  Emancipation,  with  an 
activity  and  energy  proportioned  to  the  great  object  of  our  pursuit. 
I  do,  therefore,  entreat  your  attention,  whilst  I  unravel  the  spider- 
web  of  sophistry  with  which  the  learned  gentleman  has  this  day 
sought  to  embarrass  and  disfigure  your  cause. 

"  His  discourse  was  divided  into  three  principal  heads.  First,  he 
charged  the  Catholic  prelates  with  indiscretion.  Secondly,  he  charged 
them  with  error.  And  lastly,  he  charged  the  Catholics  with  bigotry  ; 
and  with  the  zeal  and  anxiety  of  an  hired  advocate,  he  gratuitously 
vindicated  the  intolerance  of  our  oppressors.  I  beg  your  patience, 
whilst  I  follow  the  learned  gentleman  through  this  threefold  an-ange- 
ment  of  his  subject.  I  shall,  however,  invert  the  order  of  his  arrange- 
ment, and  begin  with  his  third  topic. 

"  His  argument,  iu  support  of  the  intolerants,  runs  thus.  First, 
he  alleges  that  the  Catholics  are  attached  to  their  religion  with  a 
bigoted  zeal.     I  admit  the  zeal,  but  I  utterly  deny  the  bigotry.     He 


DANIEL    O  CONNELL,   ESQ.,   M.P.  341 

seems  to  think  I  overcharge  his  statement ;  perhaps  I  do  ;  but  I  feel 
confident  that,  in  substance,  this  accusation  amounted  to  a  direct 
charge  of  bigotry.  Well,  having  charged  the  Catholics  with  a 
bigoted  attachment  to  their  church,  and  having  truly  stated  our  re- 
pugnance to  any  interference  on  the  part  of  the  secretaries  of  the 
Castle  with  our  prelates,  he  pi'oceeded  to  insist  that  those  feelings  on 
our  part  justified  the  apprehensions  of  the  Protestants.  The  Catho- 
lics (said  Mr.  Bellew)  are  alarmed  for  their  church  ;  why  should  not 
the  Protestants  be  alarmed  also  for  theirs  ?  The  Catholic  (said  he) 
desires  safety  for  his  religion  ;  why  should  not  the  Protestant  require 
security  for  his  ?  When  you,  Catholics,  express  your  anxiety  for  the 
purity  of  your  faith  (adds  the  learned  advocate),  you  demonstrate  the 
necessity  thei-e  is  for  the  Protestant  to  be  vigilant  for  the  preservation 
of  his  belief;  and  hence,  Mr.  Bellew  concludes,  that  it  is  quite  natural, 
and  quite  justifiable  in  the  Liverpools  and  Eldous  of  the  Cabinet,  to 
invent  and  insist  upon  guards  and  securities,  vetoes,  and  double 
vetoes,  boards  of  control,  and  commissions  for  loyalty. 

"  Before  I  reply  to  this  attack  upon  us,  and  vindication  of  our 
enemies,  let  me  observe,  that,  however  groundless  the  learned  gen- 
tleman may  be  in  argument,  his  friends  at  the  Castle  will,  at  least, 
have  the  benefit  of  boasting,  that  such  assertions  have  been  made  by 
a  Catholic,  at  the  Catholic  board. 

"  And,  now,  see  how  futile  and  unfounded  his  reasoning  is :  he 
says,  that  our  dislike  to  the  proposed  commission  justifies  the  suspicion 
in  which  the  plan  of  such  commission  originated  ;  that  our  anxiety 
for  the  preservation  of  our  church  vindicates  those  who  deem  the 
proposed  arrangement  necessary  for  the  protection  of  theirs — a  mode 
of  reasoning  perfectly  true,  and  perfectly  applicable,  if  we  sought 
any  interference  with,  or  control  over,  the  Protestant  church.  If 
we  desired  to  form  any  board  or  commission  to  control  or  to  regulate 
the  appointment  of  their  bishops,  deans,  archdeacons,  rectors,  or 
curates  ;  if  we  asked  or  required  that  a  single  Catholic  should  be 
consulted  upon  the  management  of  the  Protestant  Church,  or  of  its 
revenues  or  privileges  ;  then,  indeed,  would  the  learned  gentleman  be 
right  in  his  argument,  and  then  would  he  have,  by  our  example, 
vindicated  our  enemies. 

"  But  the  fact  does  not  bear  him  out ;  for  we  do  not  seek,  nor 
desire,  nor  would  we  accept  of,  any  kind  of  interference  with  the 
Protestant  Church.  We  disclaim  and  disavow  any  kind  of  control 
over  it.  We  ask  not,  nor  would  we  allow,  any  Catholic  authority 
over  the  mode  of  appointment  of  their  clergy.     Nay,  we  are  quite 


342  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

content  to  be  excluded  for  ever  from  even  advising  his  Majesty,  with 
respect  to  any  matter  relating  to  or  concerning  the  Protestant  Church 
— its  rights,  its  properties,  or  its  privileges.  I  will,  for  my  own 
part,  go  much  further ;  and,  I  do  declare,  most  solemnly,  that  I 
would  feel  and  express  equal,  if  not  stronger,  repugnance  to  the  in- 
terference of  a  Catholic  with  the  Protestant  Church,  than  that  I 
have  expressed  and  do  feel  to  any  Protestant  interference  with  ours. 
In  opposing  their  interference  with  us,  I  content  myself  with  the 
mere  war  of  words.  But  if  the  case  wei'e  reversed — if  the  Catholic 
sought  this  control  over  the  religion  of  the  Protestant,  the  Protestant 
should  command  my  heart,  my  tongue,  my  arm,  in  opposition  to  so 
unjust  and  insulting  a  measure.  So  help  me  God!  I  would  in  that 
case  not  only  feel  for  the  Protestant  and  speak  for  him,  but  I  would 
fight  for  him,  and  cheerfully  sacrifice  my  life  in  the  defence  of  the 
great  principle  for  which  I  have  ever  contended — the  principle  of 
universal  and  complete  I'eligious  liberty.  (Loud  and  repeated  cheers.) 

"  Then,  can  any  thing  be  more  absurd  and  untenable  than  the 
argument  of  the  learned  gentleman,  when  you  see  it  stript  of  the 
false  colouring  he  has  given  it  _?  It  is  absurd  to  say,  that  merely 
because  the  Catholic  desires  to  keep  his  religion  free,  the  Protestant 
is  thereby  justified  in  seeking  to  enslave  it.  Reverse  the  position, 
and  see  whether  the  learned  gentleman  will  adopt  or  enforce  it.  The 
Protestant  desires  to  preserve  his  religion  free  ;  would  that  justify 
the  Catholic  in  any  attempt  to  enslave  it  ?  I  will  take  the  learned 
advocate  of  intolerance  to  the  bigoted  court  of  Spain  or  Portugal, 
and  ask  him,  would  he,  in  the  supposed  case,  insist  that  the  Catholic 
was  j  ustifiable.  No,  my  lord,  he  will  not  venture  to  assert  that  the 
Catholic  would  be  so  ;  and  1  boldly  tell  him,  that,  in  such  a  case,  the 
Protestant  would  be  unquestionably  right,  the  Catholic,  certainly, 
an  insolent  bigot.     (Hear,  hear.) 

"  But  the  learned  gentleman  has  invited  me  to  a  discussion  of  the 
question  of  securities,  and  I  cheerfully  follow  him.  And  I  do,  my 
lord,  assert,  that  the  Catholic  is  warranted  in  the  most  scrupulous 
land  timid  jealousy  of  any  English,  for  I  will  not  call  it  Protestant, 
(for  it  is  political,  and  not,  in  truth,  religious)  interference  with  his 
chui'ch.  And  I  will  also  assert,  and  am  ready  to  prove,  that  the 
English  have  no  solid  or  rational  pretext  for  requiring  any  of  those 
guards,  absurdly  called  securities,  over  us  or  our  religion. 

"  My  lord,  the  Irish  Catholics  never,  never  broke  their  faith — 
they  never  violated  their  plighted  promise  to  the  English.  I  appeal 
to   history   for    the    truth    of    iny    asswrtion.     My   lord,   the  English 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  343 

never,  never  observed  their  faith  with  us — they  never  performed 
their  plighted  promise  ;  the  history  of  the  last  six  hundred  years 
proves  the  accuracy  of  my  assertion.  I  will  leave  the  older  periods, 
and  fix  myself  at  the  Revolution.  More  than  120  years  have 
elapsed  since  the  treaty  of  Limerick  ;  that  treaty  has  been  honour- 
ably and  faithfully  performed  by  the  Irish  Catholics  ;  it  has  been 
foully,  disgracefully,  and  directly  violated  by  the  English.  (Hear, 
hear,  hear.)  English  oaths  and  solemn  engagements  bound  them 
to  its  performance  ;  it  remains  still  of  force  and  unperformed  ;  and 
the  ruifian  yell  of  English  treachery  which  accompanied  its  first 
violation,  has,  it  seems,  been  repeated  even  in  the  senate  house  at 
the  last  repetition  of  the  violation  of  that  treaty.  They  rejoiced  and 
they  shouted  at  the  perjuries  of  their  ancestors — at  their  own  want 
of  good  faith  or  common  sense. 

"  Nay,  are  there  not  present  men  who  can  tell  us,  of  their  own 
knowledge,  of  another  instance  of  English  treachery  ?  Was  not  the 
assent  of  many  of  the  Catholics  to  the  fatal — oh  !  the  fatal  measure 
of  the  Union,  purchased  by  the  express  and  written  promise  of 
Catholic  Emancipation,  made  from  authority  by  Lord  Cornwallis, 
and  confirmed  by  the  prime  minister,  Mr.  Pitt  ?  And  has  that 
promise  been  performed  ?  or  has  Irish  credulity  afforded  only 
another  instance  of  English  faithlessness  ?  Now,  my  lord,  I  ask  this 
assembly  whether  they  can  confide  in  English  promises  ?  I  say 
nothing  of  the  solemn  pledges  of  individuals.  Can  you  confide  in  the 
more  than  punic  faith  of  your  hereditary  task-masters  ?  or  shall 
we  be  accused  of  our  scrupulous  jealousy,  when  we  reject,  with 
ndignation,  the  contamination  of  English  control  over  our  church  ? 

"  But,  said  their  learned  advocate  (Mr.  Bellew),  they  have  a  right 
to  demand,  because  they  stand  in  need  of  securities.  I  deny  the 
right — I  deny  the  need.  There  is  not  any  such  right — there  exists  no 
such  necessity.  What  security  have  they  had  for  the  century  that 
has  elapsed  since  the  violation  of  the  treaty  of  Limerick  ?  What 
security  have  they  had  during  these  years  of  oppression  and  barba- 
rous and  bloody  legislation  ?  What  security  have  they  had  whilst 
the  hereditary  claim  of  the  house  of  Stuart  remained  ?  And, 
surely,  all  the  right  that  hereditary  descent  could  give  was  vested  in 
that  family.  Let  me  not  be  misunderstood.  I  admit  they  had  no 
right ;  I  admit  that  their  right  was  taken  away  by  the  people.  I 
freely  admit  that,  on  the  contrary,  the  people  have  the  clear  right  to 
cashier  base  and  profligate  princes.  (Hear,  hear.)  What  security 
had  the  English  from  our  bishops  when   England  was  invaded,  and 


344  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

that  the  unfortunate  but  a;allant  Prince  Charles  advanced  into  the 
heart  of  England,  guided  by  valoui",  and  accompanied  by  a  handful 
of  brave  men,  who  had,  under  his  command,  obtained  more  than  one 
victory  ?  He  was  a  man  likely  to  excite  and  to  gratify  Irish  enthu- 
siasm ;  he  was  chivalrous  and  bi'ave  ;  he  was  a  man  of  honour,  and  a 
gentleman  ;  no  violator  of  his  word  ;  he  spent  not  his  time  in  mak- 
ing his  soldiers  ridiculous,  with  horse-tails  and  white  feathers  ;  he 
did  not  consume  his  mornings  in  tasting  curious  drams,  and  evenings 
in  gallanting  old  women.  What  security  had  the  English  then  ? 
What  security  had  they  against  our  bishops  or  our  laity,  when  Ame- 
rica nobly  flung  off  the  yoke  that  had  become  too  heavy  to  be  borne, 
and  sought  her  independence  at  the  risk  of  her  being  ?  What 
security  had  they  then  ?  I  will  tell  you,  my  lord.  Their  security 
at  all  those  periods  was  perfect  and  complete,  because  it  existed  in 
the  conscientious  allegiance  of  the  Catholics ;  it  consisted  in  the  duty 
of  allegiance  which  the  Irish  Catholics  have  ever  held,  and  will,  I 
trust,  ever  hold  sacred ;  it  consisted  in  the  conscientious  submission 
to  legitimate  authority,  however  oppressive,  which  our  bishops  have 
always  preached,  and  our  laity  have  always  practised.     (Cheers.) 

"  And  now,  my  lord,  they  have  the  additional  security  of  our  oaths, 
of  our  ever-inviolated  oaths  of  allegiance  ;  and  if  they  had  emanci- 
pated us,  they  would  have  had  the  additional  security  of  our  gratitude 
and  of  our  personal  and  immediate  interests.  We  have  gone  through 
persecution  and  sorrow ;  we  have  experienced  oppression  and  afliic- 
tion,  and  yet  we  have  continued  faithful.  How  absurd  to  think  that 
additional  security  could  be  necessary  to  guard  against  conciliation 
and  kindness ! 

"  But  it  is  not  bigotry  that  requires  those  concessions  ;  they  were 
not  invented  by  mere  intolerance.  The  English  do  not  dislike  us  as 
Catholics — they  simply  hate  us  as  Irish  ;  they  exhaust  their  blood 
and  treasure  for  the  papists  of  Spain  ;  they  have  long  observed  and 
cherished  a  close  and  affectionate  alliance  with  the  ignorant  and 
bigoted  papists  of  Portugal ;  and  now  they  exert  every  sinew  to  pre- 
serve those  papists  from  the  horrors  of  a  foreign  yoke.  They  emanci- 
pated the  French  papists  in  Canada,  and  a  German  papist  is  allowed 
to  rise  to  the  first  rank  in  his  profession — the  army  ;  he  can  com- 
mand not  only  Irish  but  even  English  Protestants.  Let  us,  there- 
fore, be  just ;  there  is  no  such  horror  of  popery  in  England  as  is 
supposed ;  they  have  a  great  dislike  to  Irish  papists  ;  but  separate 
the  qualities — put  the  filthy  whiskers  and  foreign  visage  of  a  German 
on  the  animal,  and  the  papist  is   entitled  to  high  favour  from  the  just 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,  M.P.  345 

and  discriminating  English.  We  fight  their  battles  ;  we  beat  their 
enemies  ;  we  pay  their  taxes,  and  we  are  degraded,  oppressed,  and 
insulted — (loud  applause),  whilst  the  Spanish,  the  Portuguese,  the 
French,  and  the  German  papists  are  courted,  cherished,  and  pro- 
moted. 

"  I  revert  now  to  the  learned  gentleman's  accusation  of  the  bishops. 
He  has  accused  them  of  error  in  doctrine  and  of  indiscretion  in  prac- 
tice. He  tells  us  that  he  is  council  to  the  college  of  Maynooth,  and, 
in  that  capacity,  he  seems  to  arrogate  to  himself  much  theological  and 
legal  knowledge.  I  concede  the  law,  but  I  deny  the  divinity ;  neither 
can  I  admit  the  accuracy  of  the  eulogium  which  he  has  pronounced 
on  that  institution,  with  its  mongrel  board  of  control — half  papist  and 
half  Protestant.  I  was,  indeed,  at  a  loss  to  account  for  the  strange 
want  of  talent — for  the  silence  of  Irish  genius  which  has  been  re- 
marked within  the  college.  I  now  see  it  easily  explained.  The  in- 
cubus of  jealous  and  rival  intolerance  sits  upon  its  walls,  and  genius, 
and  taste,  and  talent  fly  from  the  sad  dormitory,  where  sleeps  the  spirit 
of  dulness.  I  have  heard,  indeed,  of  their  Crawleys  and  these  con- 
verts, but  where,  or  when,  will  that  college  produce  a  Magee  or  a 
Sandes,  a  M'Donnell  or  a  Griffin  ?  When  will  the  warm  heart  of 
Irish  genius  exhibit  in  Maynooth  such  bright  examples  of  worth  and 
talent  as  those  men  disclose  ?  It  is  true,  that  the  bigot  may  rule  in 
Trinity  College ;  the  highest  station  in  it  may  be  the  reward  of  writ- 
ing an  extremely  bigoted  and  more  foolish  pamphlet ;  but  still  there 
is  no  conflicting  principle  of  hostile  jealousy  in  his  rulers  ;  and, 
therefore,  Irish  genius  does  not  slumber  there,  nor  is  it  smothered  as 
at  Maynooth. 

"  The  accusation  of  error  brought  against  the  bishops  by  the 
learned  gentleman,  is  sustained  simply  upon  his  opinion  and  authority. 
The  matter  stands  thus : — at  the  one  side,  we  have  the  most  rev. 
and  right  rev.  the  Catholic  prelates  of  Ireland,  who  assert  that 
there  is  schism  in  the  proposed  arrangement ;  on  the  other  side,  we 
have  the  very  rev.  the  counsel  for  the  college  of  Maynooth,  who 
asserts  that  there  is  no  schism  in  that  arrangement.  These  are  the 
conflicting  authorities.  The  rev.  prelates  assert  the  one ;  he  the 
counsellor,  asserts  the  other ;  and,  as  we  have  not  leisure  to  ex- 
amine the  point  here  doctrinally,  we  are  reduced  to  the  sad  dilemma 
of  choosing  between  the  prelates  and  the  lawyer.  (Laughter  and 
cheers.)  There  may  be  a  want  of  taste  in  the  choice  which  I  make, 
but  I  confess  I  cannot  but  prefer  the  bishops.  I  shall,  therefore,  say 
with  them,  there  would  be  schism  in   the  arrangement,  and  deny  the 


346  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

assertion  of  the  rev.  counsel,  that  it  would  not  be  schism.  But  sup- 
pose his  reverence,  the  counsel  for  Maynooth,  was  right,  and  the 
bishops  wrong,  and  that  in  the  new  arrangement  there  would  be  no 
schism,  I  then  say,  there  would  be  worse  ;  there  would  be  corruption, 
and  profligacy,  and  subserviency  to  the  Castle  in  it,  and  its  degrading 
effects  would  soon  extend  themselves  to  every  rank  and  class  of  the 
Catholics. 

"  I  now  come  to  the  second  charge  which  the  learned  gentleman,  in 
his  capacity  of  counsel  to  the  college  of  Maynooth,  has  brought 
against  the  bishops.  It  consists  of  the  high  crime  of  '  indiscretion.' 
They  were  indiscreet,  said  he,  in  coming  forward  so  soon  and  so 
boldly.  What,  when  they  found  that  a  plan  had  been  formed  which 
they  knew  to  be  schismatic  and  degrading — when  they  found  that 
this  plan  was  matured,  and  printed,  and  brought  into  parliament,  and 
embodied  in  a  bill,  and  read  twice  in  the  House  of  Commons,  without 
any  consultation  with,  and,  as  it  were,  in  contempt  of  the  Catholics 
of  Ireland — shall  it  be  said,  that  it  was  either  premature  or  indis- 
creet, solemnly  and  loudly  to  protest  against  such  plan !  If  it  were 
indiscreet,  it  was  an  indiscretion  which  I  love  and  admire — a  neces- 
sary indiscretion,  unless  perhaps,  the  learned  counsel  for  Maynooth 
may  imagine  that  the  proper  time  would  not  arrive  for  this  protest 
until  the  bill  had  actually  passed,  and  all  protest  should  be  unavailing. 

"  No,  my  lord,  I  cannot  admire  this  thing  called  Catholic  discretion, 
which  would  manage  our  affairs  in  secret,  and  declare  our  opinions, 
when  it  was  too  late  to  give  them  any  importance.  Catholic  discre- 
tion may  be  of  value  at  the  Castle  ;  a  Catholic  secret  may  be  carried, 
to  be  discounted  there  for  prompt  payment.  The  learned  gentleman 
may  also  tell  us  the  price  that  Catholic  discretion  bears  at  the  Castle, 
whether  it  be  worth  a  place,  a  peerage,  or  a  pension.  (Loud 
cheering.)  But,  if  it  have  value  and  a  price  for  individuals,  it  is  of 
no  worth  to  the  Catholic  people.  I  reject  and  abjure  it  as  applicable 
to  public  officers.  Our  opinions  ought  to  be  formed  deliberately,  but 
they  should  be  announced  manfully  and  distinctly.  We  should  be 
despicable,  and  deserve  to  continue  in  slavery,  if  we  could  equivocate 
or  disguise  our  sentiments  on  those  subjects  of  vital  importance  ;  and 
I  call  upon  you  to  thank  the  Catholic  prelates,  precisely  because  they 
had  not  the  learned  gentleman's  quality  of  discretion,  and  that  they 
had  the  real  and  genuine  discretion,  which  made  them  publish  reso- 
lutions consistent  with  their  exalted  rank  and  reverend  character,  and 
most  consonant  to  the  wishes  and  views  of  the  Catholic  people  of 
Ireland.     (Hear,  hear.) 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  347 

"  I  now  draw  to  a  close,  and  I  conjure  you  not  to  come  to  any 
division.  Let  the  amendment  be  withdrawn  by  my  learned  friend, 
and  let  our  approbation  of  our  amiable  and  excellent,  our  dignified 
and  independent  prelates,  be,  as  it  ought  to  be,  unanimous.  We  want 
unanimity ;  we  require  to  combine  in  the  constitutional  pursuit  of 
Catholic  Emancipation ;  every  class  and  rank  of  the  Catholics — the  pre- 
late and  the  peer,  the  country  gentleman  and  the  farmer,  the  peasant 
and  his  priest ;  our  career  is  to  begin  again ;  let  our  watchword  be 
unanimity,  and  our  object  be  plain  and  undisguised,  as  it  has  been, 
namely,  simple  Repeal.  (Loud  applause.)  Let  us  not  involve  or  em- 
barrass ourselves  with  vetoes,  and  arrangements,  and  securities,  and 
guards,  and  pretexts  of  divisions,  and  all  the  implements  for  ministe- 
rial corruption,  and  Castle  dominion  ;  let  our  cry  be  simple  Repeal. 
(Applause,) 

"  It  is  well — it  is  very  well  that  the  late  bill  has  been  i-ejected.  I 
rejoice  that  it  has  been  scouted.  Our  sapient  friends  at  Cork  called 
it  a  '  Charter  of  Emancipation.'  You,  my  lord,  called  it  so  ;  but, 
with  much  respect,  you  and  they  are  greatly  mistaken.  In  truth,  it 
was  no  charter  at  all,  nor  like  a  charter ;  and  it  would  not  have 
emancipated.  This  charter  of  emancipation  was  no  charter ;  and 
would  give  no  emancipation.  As  a  plain,  prose-like  expression,  it 
was  unsupported  ;  and,  as  a  figure  and  fiction,  it  made  very  bad 
poetry.  No,  my  lord,  the  bill  would  have  insulted  your  religion,  and 
done  almost  nothing  for  your  liberties ;  it  would  have  done  nothing 
at  all  for  the  people — (loud  and  repeated  cries  of  hear,  hear)  ;  it 
would  send  a  few  of  our  discreet  Catholics,  with  their  Castle-discre- 
tion, into  the  House  of  Commons,  but  it  would  not  have  enabled 
Catholic  peers  in  Ireland  to  vote  for  the  representative  peers ;  and 
thus  the  blunder  arose,  because  those  friends,  who,  I  am  told,  took  so 
much  trouble  for  you,  examined  the  act  of  Union  only,  and  did  not 
take  the  trouble  of  examining  the  act  regulating  the  mode  of  voting 
for  the  representative  peers.     (Loud  cries  of  hear,  hear.) 

"  The  bill  would  have  done  nothing  for  the  Catholic  bar,  save 
the  paltry  dignity  of  silk  gowns;  and  it  would  have  actually  deprived 
that  bar  of  the  places  of  assistant-barrister,  which,  as  the  law  stands, 
they  may  enjoy.  It  would  have  done  nothing  in  corporations — lite- 
rally nothing  at  all ;  and  when  I  pressed  this  on  Mr.  Plunket,  and 
pointed  out  to  him  the  obstacles  to  corporate  rights,  in  a  conference 
with  which,  since  his  return  to  Ireland,  he  honoured  me,  he 
informed  me — and  informed  me,  of  course,  truly — that  the  reason 
why  the  corporations  could  not  be  further  opened,  or  even  the  Bank 


348  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

of  Ireland  mentioned,  was,  because  the  Englisli  would  not  listen  to 
any  violation  of  chartered  rights ;  and  this  bill,  my  lord — this  ineffi- 
cient, useless,  and  insulting  bill — must  be  dignified  with  the  appella- 
tion of  a  '  Charter  of  Emancipation.'  I  do  most  respectfully  entreat, 
my  lord,  tliat  the  expression  may  be  well  considered  before  it  is  used 
again. 

"And  now  let  me  entreat,  let  me  conjure  the  meeting  to  banish 
every  angry  emotion,  every  sensation  of  rivalship  or  opposition  ;  let 
us  recollect  that  we  owe  this  vote  to  the  unimpeached  character  of 
our  worthy  prelates.  Even  our  enemies  respect  them  ;  and,  in  the 
fury  of  religious  and  political  calumny,  the  breath  even  of  hostile  and 
polemical  slander  has  not  reached  them.  Shall  Catholics,  then,  be 
found  to  express,  or  even  to  imply  censure  ? 

"  Recollect,  too,  that  your  country  requires  your  unanimous  sup- 
port. Poor,  degraded,  and  fallen  Ireland !  has  you,  and,  I  may  almost 
say,  you  alone  to  cheer  and  sustain  her.  Her  friends  have  been  luke- 
warm and  faint-hearted  ;  her  enemies  are  vigilant,  active,  yelling,  and 
insulting.  In  the  name  of  your  country,  I  call  on  you  not  to  divide, 
but  to  consecrate  your  unanimous  efforts  to  her  support,  till  bigotry 
shall  be  put  to  flight,  and  oppression  banished  this  land  for  ever. 
(Hear,  hear,  and  loud  cheering.)" 

In  despite  of  this  adjuration,  Counsellors  Hussey  and 
Bellew,  and  their  friends  and  followers,  persevered  in  the 
amendment,  and  pressed  for  a  division,  which  accordingly  took 
place,  with  the  following  result : — 

MAJORITY. 

Lord  Ffrench,  Thomas  Morgan,  Esq., 

Hon.  C.  Ffrench,  Edward  Butler,  Esq., 

Sir  Thomas  Esmonde,  Bart.,  J.  Fegan,  Esq., 
Counsellor  Nicholas    Purcell  O'Gor-     P.  Butler,  Esq., 

man,  John  Burke,  Esq., 

Charles  Teeling,  Esq.,  M.D.,  Henry  O'Hara,  Esq., 

John  Weldon,  Esq.,  James  Lalor,  Esq., 

Edward  Hay,  Esq.,  Ross,  P.  Dowell,  Esq., 

William  Barron,  Esq.,  Nicholas  Markey,  Esq. 

Richard  O'Gorman,  Esq.,  Pierce  Coleman,  Esq., 

Bernard  Coyle,  Esq.,  Richard  O'Brien,  Esq., 

R.  Frayne,  Esq.,  James  Hughes,  Esq., 

Patrick  Delany,  Esq.,  Edward  Cox,  Esq., 

J.  Barr}'.  Esq.,  James  Sugrue,  Esq., 


DANIEL    ()  CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P. 


349 


J.  OTerrall,  Esq., 

B.  Murphy,  Esq., 
M.  Grainger,  Esq., 
P.  Carolan,  Esq., 
Nicholas  Mahon,  Esq., 
J.  O'Farrel,  Esq., 

J.  M'Laughlin,  Esq., 
P.  Shannon,  Esq., 
William  Powell,  Esq., 
P.  M'Manus,  Esq., 
James  Murphy,  Esq., 
J.  M'Gucken,  Esq., 
J.  P.  Doyle,  Esq., 

C.  Taylor,  Esq., 
P.  Graham,  Esq., 
M.  Arthur,  Esq., 

Michael  Jospeh  O'Kelly,  Esq., 


J.  E.  Byrne,  Esq., 
Counsellor  Macarthy, 
Counsellor  William  Francis  Finn, 
Thomas     Clooney,    Esq.     {General 

Cloonexi), 
Edward  Blacker,  Esq., 
John  Byrne  Esq., 
Sylvester  Costigan,  Esq., 
Francis  Coleman,  Esq., 
James  Lalor,  Esq.,  county  Kerry, 
Edward  O'Callaghan,  Esq., 
T.  Dromgoole,  Esq.,  M.D., 
John  Rooney,  Esq., 
W.  H.  Thunder,  Esq., 
B.  Fitzhenry,  Esq., 
N.  Sweeny,  Esq. 


Tellers  for  the  noes  (viz.,  the  above  majority  against  the  amendment,  and, 
therefore,  in  favour  of  Mr.  O'Connell's  original  resolution), 

George  Bryan,  Esq., 
Counsellor  O'Connell. 


The  list  of  the  minority  was  as  follows  : — 


Sir  Edward  Bellew,  Bart. , 
Edward  Corballis,  Esq., 
Henry  Chester,  Esq., 
Charles  Smith,  Esq., 
John  Taaffe,  Esq., 
J.  Johnson,  Esq., 
Peter  Coleman,  Esq., 
W.  G.  Baggott,  Esq., 
R.  Caddell,  Esq., 


G.  Goold,  Esq., 
John  Galway,  Esq., 
James  Bulger,  Esq., 
Robert  Archbold,  Esq., 
N.  Mansfield,  Esq., 
Malachy  Donnellan,  Esq., 
Connell  O'Connell  (Clare),  Esq., 
Counsellor  O'Regan, 
Counsellor  Breen. 


Tellers  for  the  ayes  (viz.,  the  minority,  supporting  the  amendment), 

Counsellor  Bellew, 
Counsellor  Hussey. 

The  numbers,  therefore,  were,  respectively  : — 


For  Mr.  O'Connell's  motion,  - 
For  Mr.  Hussey's  motion, 


59  and  2  tellers  =  61 
18  and  2  tellers  =  20 


Majority  with  Mr.  O'Connell, 


41 


At  the  time  that  Counsellor  Bellew  made  the  speech  on 
which  Mr.  O'Connell  commented  with  such  just  severity,  he 
was  actually  in  the  receipt  oi  tico  pensions  from  the  goceriinient  ; 


350  MEMOIR     AND    SPEECHES    OF 

and  within    a  fortnight  after  the    delivery    of   that  speech   he 
received  a  third  pension  from  the  same  source  ! 

The  personal  allusions,  therefore,  in  Mr.  O'Connell's  answer 
to  him  will  be  seen  not  to  have  been  unmerited,  nor  unjustifiably 
severe. 

The  history  of  these  degrading  acquisitions  is  brief  and  full 
of  interest.  It  reveals  one  additional  disgusting  chapter  in  the 
overcrowded  volume  of  the  dark  doings  of  English  governments 
in  Ireland.  In  touching  upon  it,  we  must  repeat,  in  part,  some 
former  observations. 

In  1792-3,  the  Irish  parliament,  exclusive,  restricted,  and 
corrupted  (corrupted  by  England)  as  it  was,  yet  showed  so  much 
of  the  kindness  of  Irish  nature,  as  to  pass  its  fourth  act,  within 
nineteen  years,  of  relief  to  the  Irish  Catholics. 

This  measure,  amongst  other  privileges,  admitted  Catholics 
to  the  elective  franchise,  that  of  the  municipalities,  and  to  the 
legal  profession. 

The  only  remaining  deprivation  of  importance,  was  the  very 
important  one  of  exclusion  from  parliament.  On  this  a  few 
passing  words  are  necessary. 

We  have  before  contrasted  the  conduct  of  the  Irish  and 
English  parliaments  as  to  Catholic  relief,  to  the  just  disadvantage 
of  the  latter  legislature.  We  are  quite  aware  that  it  may  be 
said,  that  although  England  did  delay  twenty-nine  years,  after 
she  had  gotten  possession  of  our  representation,  to  pass  the 
remaining  Act  of  Relief,  yet,  that  her  concession  was  of 
more  value  and  importance  than  all  that  had  been  done  before 
1800. 

To  this  there  are  two  answers : — 

First — That  the  Irish  parliament,  having  shown  such  alacrity 
when  once  they  did  begin  to  remove  disabilities  on  account  of 
religion,  would,  in  all  human  probability,  have  gone  on  with 
proportionate  rapidity,  to  the  last  and  crowning  work  of  admit- 
ting Catholics  to  the  legislature. 

Secondly — That  the  distance  was  immeasurably  greater  from 
the  utter  social  nonentitjj,  if  we  may  be  permitted  so  to  use  the 
word,  of  the  Catholics  in  1775  (when  ameliorations  of  their  con- 
dition were  first  taken  in  hand)  to  their  entire  social,  though 
nni  political  equality,  in  1793,  than  from  their  position  after  the 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  351 

concessions  of  the  latter  year,  to  their  position  after  concession 
of  legislative  rights. 

Not  among  the  least  influential  of  the  circumstances  which 
determined  the  English  government  to  put  an  end,  at  all 
hazards,  and  by  any  and  every  means,  to  the  Irish  parliament, 
was  this  evident  approach  to  conciliation  and  national  union, 
evidenced  by  the  increasing  spirit  of  legislative  concession. 
The  old  policy  of  "  divide  et  impera^''  was  in  danger,  and 
itself  could  only  save  itself. 

Accordingly,  every  effort  was  made,  and  with  great  success, 
to  blow  up  the  embers  of  internal  dissensions.  Not  content 
with  these  means  of  dissipating  the  embryo  national  league, 
corruption  was  lavishly  employed,  and  corruption  among  the 
Catholics  themselves.  How  extensively  that  corruption  was 
afterwards  executed,  and  how  its  operation  was  afterwards  so 
fearfully  aided  by  the  betrayal  and  goading  of  the  innocent 
people  into  a  wild  and  driftless  insurrection,  whose  baleful  fires 
were  speedily  quenched  in  seas  of  their  own  blood,  belongs  to 
the  history  of  the  Union,  and  not  to  that  of  Mr.  Bellew,  to 
whose  individual  history  we  have,  with  an  unavoidable  and, 
indeed,  a  necessary  circuitousness,  been  approaching. 

That  gentleman  was  among  the  first  of  his  persuasion  to 
make  use  of  the  concession  of  1793,  opening  to  them  the  legal 
profession.  He,  with  others  in  similar  circumstances,  had 
previously  been  prominent  in  the  "  agitation"  of  those  times ; 
and  government  dreading  that  their  habits  of  public  life  would 
incite  them  to  make  use  of  their  new  vantage  ground  of  social 
equality,  to  push  that  agitation  with  more  eftect,  resolved  to  buy 
him  and  them  out  of  it,  and  accordingly,  without  cause  stated, 
or  public  intimation  made,  conferred  pensions  upon  some  four 
or  five  of  the  most  prominent — choosing  those  who,  from 
talent  or  family  connexion,  were  likely  to  prove  the  most 
influential. 

Mr.,  or  to  designate  him  more  properly,  the  newly  created 
Counsellor  Bellew,  received,  at  this  period,  a  pension  of  £300 
])er  annum.  Besides  his  own  abilities,  he  had,  as  an  additional 
recommendation  for  this  pension,  the  influence  of  the  Bellew 
family,  and  of  their  connexions. 


352  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

This,  then,  was  pension  number  one. 

As  the  wicked  schemes  of  the  British  minister  approached 
nearer  to  their  wicked  completion  in  the  accm'sed  legislative 
Union,  and  the  inextinguishable  spirit  of  Irish  nationality  con- 
vulsed the  empire  with  its  struggles  against  serfdom,  the 
political  importance  of  the  Catholics  very  largely  increased, 
and  the  market  for  the  corrupt  among  them  was  accordingly 
enhanced. 

Mr.  Counsellor  Bellew  influenced  his  family  to  support  the 
Union,  and  exerted  himself  to  the  extent  of  his  opportunities  in 
advancing  it. 

For  this  good  service  he  was  promised,  by  Lord  Castlereagh, 
the  chairmanship  of  a  county. 

When  the  accursed  Union  was  accomplished,  he  made  his 
claim  for  the  wages  of  his  treason  to  Ireland.  The  then 
chancellor,  however.  Lord  Redesdale,  was  too  deep-grained  a 
bigot  to  suffer  a  Catholic  to  obtain  any  judicial  rank  he 
could  impede,  no  matter  what  base  service  might  be  done 
for  it. 

He,  accordingly,  decidedly  objected  to  Counsellor  Bellew's 
appointment,  fully  recognizing  the  importance  of  the  treason, 
but  grudging  it  its  infamous  wage. 

Lord  Castlereagh  as  decidedly  declared  that  Mr.  Bellew 
should  have  what  had  been  promised  him.  "  The  Union  pro- 
mises MUST,  at  all  hazards,  he  kept"  was  the  declaration  of  the 
conscientious  and  justice-loving  lord  ! 

But,  as  if  by  accident,  there  dropped  from  him  a  saving 
suggestion,  that,  perhaps,  Mr.  Bellew  would  prefer  a  pleasant 
sinecure  of  £300  per  annum  for  life,  to  the  labours  and 
troubles  of  a  county  chairman's  seat,  with  its  salary,  only  while 
able  to  do  duty,  of  £400  a  year,  exclusive  of  fees. 

Counsellor  Bellew  sagely  preferred  the  certain  and  enduring 
sinecure,  the  more  readily  as  it  enabled  him  to  pursue,  uninter- 
rupted, the  profitable  business  of  which  he  was  in  the  enjoy- 
ment, in  the  conveyancing  branch  of  his  profession. 

This,  then,  was  pension  the  second,  equally  unknown  as  the 
first  to  the  general  public. 

Pension  the  third — amounting,  however,  to  only  tico  hundred  a 


DANIEL    OCONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  353 

year — a  diminution,  doubtless,  felt  by  hira  as  an  unmerited 
grievance,  was,  as  we  have  said,  granted  him  after  his  speech 
against  the  bishops  in  1813. 

Neither  was  the  grant  of  this  last  pension  known,  until  some 
six  or  seven  years  later,  when,  on  perusal  of  the  first  parlia- 
mentary return,  relative  to  the  pension-list,  that  the  economists 
in  the  House  of  Commons  at  last  got  the  government  to  accede 
to,  Mr.  O'Connell  found  Mr.  Bellew's  name  set  down  for  the 
amount  stated,  with  a  date  so  very  near  his  recollection  of  the 
debate  we  have  last  given,  that  he  referred  back  to  the  papers 
of  that  time  to  see  how  the  fact  stood,  and  found  that  the  said 
pension  had  been  granted  to  Mr.  Bellew  exactly  the  day  fortniyht 
after  the  speech  in  question. 

It  may  appear  hard  against  the  memory  of  a  long  deceased 
man  to  mention  these  matters  now ;  but  the  secret  corruption 
of  men  taking  a  prominent  part  in  public  ajSairs  is  of  far  too  grave 
a  cast  of  criminality  in  itself  and  in  its  consequences,  not  to  be 
exposed  and  denounced  for  the  purposes  of  deterring  from 
imitation,  and  warning  from  blind  confidence. 

The  interests — nay,  the  very  existence  of  a  nation,  are  far 
too  deeply  involved  in  thus  publicly  proclaiming  treason  of  by- 
gone, as  well  as  (where  discernable)  of  present  times,  to  allow 
milder  considerations  to  prevail.  It  would,  in  fact,  be  criminal 
tceakness  so  to  do,  in  a  work  having,  in  any  degree,  however 
imperfect,  the  character  of  an  historic  record. 

While  giving  the  abstract  of  Mr.  Bellew's  anti-hishop, 
and,  indeed,  anti- Catholic  speech,  we  have  commented  upon 
the  unworthy  and  audacious  spirit  that  pervaded  it — a 
spirit  which,  if  adopted  by  the  Catholics  of  Ireland,  either 
then  or  now,  could  not  fail  to  eventuate  in  rendering  Ire- 
land the  howling  desert  in  morality  and  religion,  which 
was  the  condition  of  France  for  many  years  after  her  first 
revolution. 

The  great  leading,  saving,  and  binding  principle  of  the 
Catholic  church  is  authority.  Weaken  that  by  insidious 
sapping,  or  open  attack,  and  the  whole  fabric  of  the  church  goes 
with  it.     Men   ridiculed,    taunted,    tempted  by   licence  to   the 

2   A 


354  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

passions,  or  rudely  startled  out  of  their  ancient  and  traditional 
predilections,  in  matters  of  a  religious  nature,  do  not  easily 
relish  and  adopt  any  other. 

Of  all  nations  perhaps  the  Irish  have  shown  themselves  the 
least  likely  to  be  so  converted.  Still  man  is  frail ;  and  though 
conversion  to  another  form  of  worship  be  impossible,  disturbance 
of  religious  feeling,  a,nd  consequent  disturbance  of  the  foun- 
dations of  morality,  might  not  be  equally  impossible.  Once 
sow  dissension  between  the  Irish  people  and  those  religious 
ministers  to  whom  they  have  shown  themselves  so  devotedly 
attached,  and  whom  they  so  unaiFectedly  reverence — once 
weaken,  if  you  can,  that  affection  and  that  reverence,  and  the 
very  ardour  and  impetuosity  of  the  Irish  character  would 
widen  irremediably  the  breach  so  made,  and  sweep  away,  in  a 
torrent,  all  the  barriers  of  the  passions. 

But  this  neither  can  be  done,  nor  shall  be  done.  Mr. 
O'Connell  stopped  the  fell  attempt,  when  made  in  1813,  with 
all  the  advantages  to  the  enemy  of  the  disheartened  and  dis- 
united condition  of  the  people.  Again  he  has,  within  the  last 
year  and  a  half,  checked  the  first  manifestations  of  its  renewal ; 
and  his  efforts  have  been  so  responded  to  by  the  united  people, 
that,  under  Providence,  he  may  be  confident  of  even  more 
triumphant  success  than  before. 

We  shall  have  again  and  again  to  return  to  these  topics,  and 
shall,  therefore,  proceed  now  with  what  remains  unrecorded  of 
Mr.  O'Connell's  efforts,  at  what  may  well  be  called  the  Catholic 
crisis  of  1813. 

We  re-commence  with  the  occasion  when  the  Catholic  Arch- 
bishop of  Dublin,  Doctor  Troy,  gave  answer  to  the  reference 
made  to  him  by  Sir  Edward  Bellew,  at  the  meeting  of  the  29  th 
May. 

On  this  occasion  Sir  Thomas  Esmonde  was  in  the  chair. 

The  proceedings  commenced  with  a  letter,  read  by  the  secre- 
tary, from  James  Byrne,  Esq.,  secretary  to  the  Kilkenny 
Catholic  Board,  enclosing  a  resolution  from  the  latter  body, 
which  will  prove  that  the  "  Kilkenny  boys"  were  true  to  Ireland 
then  as  now. 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  ^55 

"  Resolved— That  from  the  recent  conduct  of  James  Bulger,  Esq.,  in  sup- 
porting an  amendment,  proposed  by  Counsellor  Bellew,  at  the  Catholic  board, 
on  Saturday,  the  29th  ultimo,  which,  in  our  idea,  conveyed  censure  upon  our 
venerable  prelates,  we  deem  it  expedient  to  suspend  our  confidence  in  him 
until  our  sentiments  shall  be  further  expressed." 

The  name  of  the  gentleman  thus  censured,  by  what  might 
have  been  called  his  constituency^  will  be  seen  in  the  list  we 
have  already  given  of  Counsellor  Bellew's  supporters  in  the 
division  of  the  29th  May. 

Mr.  Finn  (William  Francis),  who  was  the  acting  secretary 
of  the  day,  "  observed,  on  reading  this  document,  that  he 
had  merely  complied  with  his  duty,  as  acting  secretary.  He 
had  consulted  some  of  the  members  of  the  board  on  the  pro- 
priety of  reading  it,  and  was  informed  that  his  doing  so  was 
not  only  his  duty,  but  strictly  conformable  to  former  pre- 
cedents." 

After  some  other  business,  Mr.  Peter  Bodkin  Hussey,  origi- 
nator of  the  defeated  amendment  of  the  29th  May,  rose  .  .  . 
"  to  address  a  few  words  respecting  the  misrepresentations 
which  had  gone  abroad  of  his  conduct  at  the  last  meeting  of  the 
board,  in  reference  to  the  vote  of  thanks  to  the  Catholic 
bishops." 

*'  He  paid  too  high  a  respect  to  public  opinion  to  follow  the 
example  of  others,  who  had  thought  proper  to  absent  themselves 
in  disgust,  from  further  attendance  at  the  board. 

"  It  had  been  stated,  generally,  that  those  who  voted  in  the 
minority,  on  the  resolution  alluded  to,  had  desired  to  pass  a 
vote  of  censure  upon  the  Catholic  bishops.  Than  this  as- 
sertion, nothing  could  be  more  false  or  unfounded.  It  had 
been  stated  also,  that  those  who  voted  in  that  minority,  had 
voted  in  approbation  of  the  Castle  policy.  This  also  was  a 
gross  falsehood,"  &c.,  &c. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  rose  and  said,  that  he  had  that  day  re- 
ceived a  letter  from  the  Most  Rev.  Dr.  Troy,  which  he  begged 
leave  to  read  to  the  meeting,  without  trespassing  upon  their 
time  by  making  either  a  speech  or  a  motion." 

"  •  My  Dear  Sir,  "•  Cavendish-row,  Dublin,  June  4,  1813. 

"  '  The  newspapers,  in  reporting  the  proceedings  of  the  Catholic  Board,  on 
Saturday  last,   state,   (from  the  speeches  of  two  most  respectable  members 


356  MEMOIR     AND    SPEECHES    OF 

thereof,)  that  I  had  acquiesced  in  Mr.  Canning's  clauses,  and  declared  Lord 
Castlereagh's  amendments  inadmissible,  .  .  .  and  that  reference  had  been 
made  to  me  by  those  gentlemen  for  the  truth  of  their  asssertioa. 

' '  '  Thus  called  upon,  I  feel  it  a  duty  I  owe  to  the  Board,  to  the  Catholics  of 
Ireland,  and  to  myself,  to  state  fairly  the  humble  part  that  I  took  in  the 
occurrences  respecting  this  most  important  subject. 

"  '  I  was  honoured  with  a  letter  of  the  2nd  April,  from  a  noble  lord,  com- 
municating manuscript  heads  of  Mr.  Grattan's  bill,  and  of  Mr.  Canning's 
projets  of  intended  clauses.  In  my  reply  to  his  lordship  of  the  I2th,  after 
consultation  with  the  parish  priests  of  the  city,  I  deprecated  any  lay  inter- 
ference, not  authorised  by  the  church,  in  the  appointment  of  our  bishops ;  and 
particularly  objected  to  the  proposed  inquisitorial,  close,  absolute,  and  summary 
commissions  or  boards  of  five  lay  persons,  however  respiectable  from  rank 
and  character,  without  responsibility,  as  an  imperium  in  imperio,  and  a  kind  of 
lay  eldership  unknown  in  our  church  government. 

"  '  On  the  Sunday  before  Lord  Fingal's  departure  for  England,  I  observed  to 
his  lordship,  that  the  exclusion  of  the  bishops  from  the  proposed  commission 
was  insulting  to  our  clergy,  as  intimating  a  suspicion  or  doubt,  if  not  an 
affirmation,  of  their  disloyalty ;  and  gave  him  a  short,  hasty-written  memo- 
randum to  this  effect,  of  which  I  have  not  a  copy. 

"  '  On  the  7th  ultimo,  I  received  a  note  from  Mr.  Canning  of  the  3rd,  stating, 
that  he  had  fowarded  his  printed  clauses  by  the  same  post.  I  replied  on  the 
7th  that  I  had  not  got  them,  and  on  the  8th  acknowledged  the  receipt  of  them. 
The  project  respecting  the  two  commissions  was  altered  in  the  printed  clauses, 
by  the  insertion  of  four  additional  commissioners,  the  Lord  Chancellor,  the 
Cliief  Secretary,  and  of  two  Archbishops  ;  and  proposing,  that  one  of  the  three 
composing  the  quorum,  should  be  a  Protestant. 

"  '  When  acknowledging  the  receipt  of  the  printed  clauses,  I  remarked  to 
Mr.  Canning,  "that  the  inquisitorial  commissions,  proposed  to  be  established, 
had  occasioned  much  uneasiness,  and  excited  alarm  among  the  Roman  Catholic 
clergy  and  laity  of  Ireland,  particularly  the  former ;  that  I  had  objected  to 
them,  of  even  composed  only  of  prelates,  and  protested  against  them  in  the 

name  of  my  brethren  in  my  communications  with  Lord ,  and  declared  that, 

if  ever  admitted,  they  should  be  respectively  composed  of  a  majority  of  prelates ; 
or  at  least  of  an  equal  number  of  peers  and  prelates  ;  that  no  change  or  altera- 
tion in  our  present  discipline,  respecting  the  appointment  of  bishops,  could 
take  place,  without  the  concurrence  and  sanction  of  the  Pope,  who  is  now 
inaccessible ;  and,  that  for  further  particulars  on  the  subject,  I  begged  leave  to 
refer  him  to  my  letter  to  the  noble  lord." 

"  '  To  this  letter  Mr.  Canning  replied  on  the  12th,  and  remarked,  "that  his 
communication  of  the  clauses  he  intended  to  move,  in  addition  to  Mr.  Grattan's 
bill,  was  made  as  a  matter  of  courtesy,  and  not  for  the  purpose  of  consultation  ; 
that  it  was  always  his  principle,  that  parliament  should  decide,  not  that 
Roman  Catholics  should  dictate  the  terms  of  any  act  to  be  passed  for  their 
benefit ;  that  on  this  principle  he  must  decline  taking  upon  himself  to  announce 
what  I  called  a  protest  against  the  clauses  intended  to  be  proposed  in  the  com- 
mittee, the  language  of  protest  not  being,  in  his  opinion,  the  language  to  be 
addressed  to  parliament." 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,  M.P.  357 

"  '  In  my  reply  to  Mr.  Canning  of  tlie  15th,  I  briefly  assured  him,  *'  that  in 
using  the  word  protest,  I  did  not  intend  any  disrespect  or  dictation  to  parlia- 
ment, or  to  himself;  and  that  if  my  brethren  should  deem  it  expedient  to 
approach  parliament,  they  would  do  it  respectfully,  and  in  the  language  of 
petition." 

"  '  Two  members  of  the  board  had  called  on  me  on  the  8th,  to  know  whether 
I  had  corresponded  with  Mr.  Canning  or  other  framers  of  the  bill,  or  had 
assented  to  the  clauses,  as  Mr.  Hay  had  written  to  Mr  Finn,  "  that  the  bill 
would  not  pass  without  them ;  that  they  had  been  altered  and  modified  in 
consequence  of  communications  from  me,  and  that  the  intended  committee  (he 
should  have  said  commission)  had  been  so  altered  as  to  be  only  a  species  of 
egistry." 

"  '  I  assured  tha  gentlemen  that  I  had  had  no  communication  whatever  with 
any  one  of  the  committee  preparing  the  bill,  previously  to  the  3rd,  the  date  of 
Mr.  Hay's  letter ;  and  that  so  far  from  assenting  to  the  clauses,  I  had  protested 
against  the  commissions  in  a  letter  to  a  noble  lord ;  and  that  I  considered  them 
as  vetoes' oi  the  worst  kind.  This  was  roported  to  the  board  on  the  same  day  by 
both  gentlemen. 

"  '  As  his  lordship's  correspondence  with  me  was  confidential,  I  wrote  to  him 
on  that  evening,  expressing  my  great  surprise  at  Mr.  Hay's  having  seen  it,  and 
my  equal  alarm  at  his  stating  that  I  had  assented  to  the  clauses. 

"  '  It  is  true,  I  suggested  some  amendment  in  them  to  his  lordship  ;  but,  ex- 
cepting those  regarding  the  words  spiritual  and  ecclesiastical,  they  were  not 
adopted.  The  proposed  accession  of  two  Protestant  personages  and  two  Catholic 
Archbishops  in  the  commission,  was  an  alteration  ;  I  did  not  consider  it  an 
amendment.  I  must  refer  you  to  a  copy  of  his  lordship's  reply,  dated  the  I2th, 
which,  at  his  own  particular  desire,  was  communicated. 

'  *  '  It  appears  from  the  endorsement,  that  the  bill,  incorporating  the  altered 
clauses,  and  Lord  Castlereagh's  proposed  amendment,  was  ordered  to  be  printed 
on  the  19th  ult.  I  received  it  under  Mr.  Canning's  frank,  without  a  line 
from  himself,  on  the  2.5th,  the  day  on  which  our  prelates  assembled  here. 
They  observed,  with  extreme  regret,  that  the  objectionable  jjarts  of  Mr.  Can- 
ning's projects  and  clauses  were  retained  in  the  bill,  and  aggravated  by  a  double 
Veto. 

"  '  I  had  entertained  a  different  expectation,  and  in  my  letter  of  the  20th, 
to  the  noble  lord,  expressed  my  hope  that  the  bill  would  be  freed  from  all  un- 
necessary and  revolting  provisions,  and  the  complex  machinery  of  securities 
be  simplified,  and  made  to  stand  upon  one  comprehensive  oath,  without 
burthening  it  with  either  of  the  proposed  commissions — but  Diisaliter  visum. 

' '  '  From  this  detailed  statement  of  the  part  I  took  concerning  the  bill,  it  is 
evident  that  I  uniformly  objected  to  the  principle  of  the  two  commissions  pro- 
posed in  Mr.  Canning's  projects  and  clauses. 

"  'In  some  conversations  on  the  subject  with  an  honourable  and  worthy 
baronet,  I  urged  the  expediency  and  necessity  of  constituting  prelates  members 
of  any  admissible  board,  in  the  extreme  case  that  it  would  be  insisted  on  as  a 
sine  qua  non  of  Catholic  Emancipation  ;  and  assured  him,  that  our  prelates 
were  disposed  to  conciliate  and  concede  everything  they  could,  with  the  safety 
of  religion,  under  the  sanrtion  of  ihe  Pope.     From  this,  my  admission,  of  pre- 


358  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

lates  to  compose  a  board,  he  misconceived  that  I  had  assented  to  the  boards  or 
commissions  in  Mr.  Canning's  clauses.  On  the  bill  itself,  including  these 
clauses  and  the  double  Vetoes,  I  had  no  material  conversation  with  him. 

"  '  Neither  had  I,  at  any  time,  a  conversation  on  the  subject  with  my 
learned  friend,  the  baronet's  brother,  from  whom,  I  presume,  he  had  received 
information  of  my  correspondence  with  a  noble  lord,  and  consequently  argued 
respecting  my  conduct,  as  the  baronet  did,  from  misconception,  which  has  led 
both  into  an  incorrect  statement  of  it. 

"  '  But  admitting  that  I  had,  in  hasty  conversation  with  the  baronet,  ex- 
pressed myself  doubtfully,  or  even  favourable  to  the  proposed  board  and  clauses, 
my  brethren  were  not  committed  by  any  thing  I  might  have  said,  or  could 
say,  nor  precluded  from  deliberating  in  common,  and  deciding  as  they  have 
done. 

"  '  I  cannot  decline  this  occasion,  to  remark  on  the  learned  gentleman's 
assimilating,  in  some  degree,  the  members  of  a  mixed  inquisitorial  commission 
to  the  board  of  trustees  of  Maynooth  College,  who  are  seventeen  in  number, 
all  Catholics,  and  of  whom  eleven  are  prelates.  The  college  is  not  of  divine 
institution,  but  established  by  regal  and  parliamentary  authority,  and  is 
governed  by  human  laws  and  regulations,  according  with  the  discipline  of  the 
Catholic  church.  Catholic  bishops,  agreeably  to  the  present  long  established 
discipline,  derive  their  mission  from  the  supreme  pastor  and  governor  of  tlie 
church,  the  bishop  of  Eome,  and  not  from  any  lay  authority  whatsoever,  which 
cannot,  except  by  privilege  from  the  church,  interfere  in  their  election  or 
appointment.  The  visitors  of  Maynooth  College  are  seven,  including  a 
Catholic  peer  and  two  prelates,  and  are  prohibited  by  law  from  interfering 
with  the  doctrine  or  discipline  of  the  Catholic  church. 

"  'The  proposed  absolute  inquisitorial  commission  would  introduce  schism, 
by  separating  bishops  from  the  head  pastor,  and  eventually  undermine  the 
Irish  ICatholic  hierarchy.  Such  a  prospect  must,  surely,  fill  the  mind  of 
every  good  Catholic  with  consternation  and  dismay.  Wisliing  you  every 
happiness, 

"  *  I  have  the  honour  to  be,  my  dear  Sir, 

'•  '  Your  faithful  humble  servant, 

"  'J.  T.  TEOY. 

"  'D.  O'Connell,  Esq 

"  '  P.  S. — I  should  have  distinctly  remarked,  that  any  commission  tending  to 
limit  the  spiritual  jurisdiction  of  the  Pope,  without  his  own  consent,  would  be, 
on  Catholic  principles,  inadmissible ;  and  that  by  the  hints  I  had  the  honour  to 
suggest  to  a  noble  lord,  I  wished  merely  to  render  the  clauses  as  little  penal, 
injurious,  and  oppressive,  as  possible.'" 


This  letter  having  been  read  and  listened  to  without  note  or 
comment,  Mr.  O'Connell  presently  afterwards  proceeded  to 
address  the  meeting  upon  what  was  denominated 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  359 

"  TIIE  REGENT'S  PLEDGE. 

"  He  said,  he  rose  to  make  the  motion  of  which  he  had  given  notice 
on  Saturday  last,  relative  to  the  recorded  opinion  of  his  Royal  High- 
ness the  Prince  Regent,  upon  the  subject  of  the  Catholic  claims. 

"  It  was  a  duty  which  he  felt  imposed  on  him  by  the  present 
posture  of  Catholic  atfairs,  to  place  beyond  the  reach  of  controversy, 
present  or  futui'e,  the  various  motives  which  had  encouraged  the 
Catholics  of  Ireland  to  persevere  in  pressing  their  wants  on  the  con- 
sideration of  parliament.  Desirous  to  obtain  Emancipation  through 
the  legitimate  channels  of  the  constitution,  and  I  would  not  accept  it 
through  any  other,  I  wish  to  demonstrate  to  the  world,  that  we  have 
had,  and  still  ought  to  retain,  the  highest  possible  personal  encourage- 
ment to  persevere  in  the  demand  of  our  rights — to  show  that  those 
rights  have  been  distinctly  and  unequivocally,  deliberately  and 
repeatedly  recognized  by  the  very  first  personage  in  the  state. 

"  This  is  one  great  object  of  my  present  motion.  There  is  another, 
and  one  of  some  personal  and  national  interest.  I  wish  to  justify  to 
the  world  the  enthusiastic  effusions  of  affection  with  which  the  first 
approach  to  power  of  his  Royal  Highness  the  Prince  Regent  was 
greeted  by  so  humble  an  individual  as  myself — effusions  which  were 
congenial  to  the  sentiments,  as  they  were  freely  adopted  by  the 
deliberate  assent  of  the  people  of  Ireland.  I  desire  to  prove,  that  we 
were  not  actuated  by  the  mere  delusion  of  loyalty,  nor  by  expec- 
tations of  royal  patriotism,  originating  in  our  own  warmth  of  hope 
or  created  by  the  fertility  of  our  own  fancy.  Our  hopes  may  have 
been  delusive,  but  they  were  not  irrational. 

"  Allegiance  to  the  sovereign  has  been  long  the  pride  and  boast  of 
the  Catholic  people  of  Ireland — an  allegiance  not  created  by  personal 
kindness,  but  sustained  by  a  rigid  sense  of  duty.  The  Catholics 
were  loyal  to  the  ill-fated  and  oppressive  House  of  Stuart.  Even 
amidst  the  crimes  of  that  unfortunate  family,  and  towards  the  Irish 
they  were  very  criminal — even  amidst  the  crimes  and  oppressions  of 
that  family,  the  Irish  continued  faithful ;  and,  in  the  season  of  their 
distress,  when  the  Stuarts  deprived  themselves  of  all  other  friends 
the  Irish  Catholics  served  them  with  a  zeal  and  a  bravery  propor- 
tioned only  to  the  wants  of  their  former  oppressors.  Allegiance, 
then,  perhaps,  ceased  to  be  a  duty,  and  was  certainly  imprudent ;  but 
the -Irish  heart  was  not  cold  or  calculating,  and  it  cheerfully  spilled 
its  dearest  blood  in  the  protection  of  those  very  princes,  who,  in  the 


360  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

hour  of  their  prosperity,  had  insulted  and  plundered  them.  Carried 
too  far,  it  was  a  mistaken  and  an  absurd  principle  of  action  ;  but  the 
spring  has  not  lost  all  its  elasticity,  and  what  our  fathers  had  been, 
the  Catholics  of  the  present  day  were  inclined  to  be. 

"  The  Prince  of  Wales  certainly  appeared  to  j  ustify  this  over- 
weening propensity  to  loyalty,  and  had  been  brought  up  in  the  school 
of  the  most  manly  and  honest  statesman  of  the  age — Charles  James 
Fox — a  man  who  inherited  so  much  of  fervor  of  liberty,  that  it 
glowed  in  his  heart  amidst  the  chilling  scenes  of  parliamentary 
profligacy,  and  was  never  extinguished,  even  by  the  cold  damps  of 
ministerial  corruption.  The  Prince  had  been  long  dear  to  Ireland. 
When  upon  his  Majesty's  first  illness  in  1788,  Mr.  Pitt,  that  greatest 
curse  that  ever  pi'ovidence,  in  its  wrath,  had  inflicted  to  England — 
when  Mr.  Pitt,  in  1788,  resolved  to  alter  the  constitution,  and,  in 
point  of  fact,  disinherited  the  Prince  of  his  due  succession  to  the  regal 
power,  he  was  applauded  by  the  corrupt  tribe  of  borough-mongers, 
whose  applause  he  paid  for  with  the  public  money,  and  he  was  sup- 
ported by,  what  was  then  called,  the  monied  interest,  with  whom  he 
had  bartered  and  sold  his  country.  Mr.  Pitt  accomplished  his  purpose 
in  England,  and  bequeathed  his  example  as  no  unproductive  legacy 
to  the  late  pious  Perceval. 

"  But  the  Irish  parliament  judged  more  rightly ;  there  were 
borough-mongers  in  it  in  abundance.  There  were  corrupt  and  bribed 
men  in  it ;  but  there  was  an  Irish  heart  in  that  parliament,  that  more 
than  once  triumphed  over  all  the  influence  of  the  minister,  and  over 
all  the  powers  of  corruption.  The  Irish  parliament  decided — and 
decided  justly — that,  as  upon  the  personal  demise  of  the  King,  the 
regal  authority  would  belong,  of  unquestionable  right,  to  the  Prince ; 
so,  upon  the  political  and  moral  decease  of  the  reigning  sovereign — 
for  loss  of  reason  is  surely  moral  and  political  decease — the  authority 
of  the  crown  ought,  by  the  closest  and  clearest  analogy,  belong  to  the 
same  prince. 

"  In  the  one  case,  George  the  Third  was,  for  any  of  the  purposes 
of  the  constitution,  as  much  dead  as  in  the  other ;  and  the  commen- 
surate consequences  ought  to  have  followed  in  one  case  as  in  the 
other.  It  was  thus  the  parliament  of  Ireland  determined ;  and  the 
Irish  people,  with  one  voice,  confirmed  that  decision. 

"  Who  can  forget  the  answers  of  his  Royal  Highness — who  can 
forget  how  he  talked  of  '  his  affection  and  gratitude  to  the  generous 
people  of  Ireland  ?' — how  he  promised  to  devote  his  life  '  to  the  pre- 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,  M.P.  361 

servation    of  their   liberties — to    the    establishment   of    their   hap- 
piness ? 

"  When,  after  a  silence  of  more  than  twelve  years,  the  Catholic 
question  was  revived  and  brought  befoi-e  parliament  in  1805,  we  had 
the  meanness  (pardon  me  the  expression,  it  is  extorted  by  truth)  to 
apply  to  Mr.  Pitt  to  present  our  petition.  Mr.  Pitt,  whose  written 
pledge  in  favour  of  Catholic  emancipation,  was  in  our  hands — Mr. 
Pitt,  ever  consistent  in  abandoning  any  principle  that  might  injure 
his  interests,  refused  to  interfere  on  our  behalf,  or  to  perform  his 
promise. 

How  different  was  the  conduct  of  Mr.  Fox.  He  well  knew  that 
by  assisting  us,  he  would  increase  the  number  of  his  enemies  in 
England,  and  the  difficulty  of  his  attaining  power.  But  he  did  not 
hesitate  to  become  our  advocate  ;  he  presented  the  petition  and  sup- 
ported it  by  one  of  those  powerful  bursts  of  eloquence,  the  effects  of 
which  upon  the  English  mind,  still  operate  in  our  favour.  At  that 
period,  Mr.  Fox  was  the  intimate — the  particular  friend  of  the 
Prince.  It  required  little  power  of  association  to  combine  the 
wishes  of  the  one  with  the  sentiments  of  the  other.  And  although 
the  Prince  did  not  attend  the  House  of  Peers,  when  our  question 
was  debated — though  he  neither  spoke  in  the  house,  nor  voted  for 
us,  yet  his  opinions  were  not  concealed. 

"  Shortly  after  that  debate,  a  letter  was  written,  by  the  late  Earl  of 
Kenmare,  to  a  gentleman  still  in  this  town,  stating  the  substance  of 
a  communication  made  to  him  by  the  Prince  of  Wales  on  the  subject 
of  our  claims,  in  which  the  Prince  most  distinctly  recognized  the 
justice  and  the  expediency  of  concession  to  us  ;  excused  himself  for 
yielding  to  the  obvious  motives  of  delicacy,  which  prevented  him  at 
that  period  from  taking  any  public  part  on  our  behalf,  but  added  the 
solemn  declaration  of  his  determination  to  forward  our  relief  so  soon 
as  he  might  have  it  in  his  power  constitutionally  to  do  so.  Such, 
Mr.  Chairman,  was  the  substance  of  the  Prince's  pledge,  as  stated  in 
the  letter  of  the  Earl  of  Kenmare.  It  contained  a  request,  that  the 
gentleman  to  whom  it  was  written  (a  Catholic  barrister  of  family 
and  fortune,  and  of  eminence  in  his  profession,)  should  show  it  to 
many  of  the  Catholic  noblemen  and  gentlemen  in  Ireland,  so  as  to 
give  it  as  much  publicity  as  possible,  without  inserting  it  in  the 
newspapers. 

"  And,  here,  I  beg  leave  to  correct  an  error  into  which  I  was  led 
on  this  subject  by  the  perusal  of  Lord  Kenmare's  letter.     I  certainly 


362  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

did  understand  his  lordship  to  have  stated,  that  the  Prince's 
sentiments  were  communicated  in  writing,  and  were  transmitted  to 
the  noble  earl,  by  Colonel  M'Mahon,  at  Cheltenham.  How  I 
could  have  been  mistaken  I  know  not,  but  it  is  quite  certain  that 
I  was  under  a  mistake  ;  for,  having  at  a  public  meeting  asserted 
the  existence  of  such  written  pledge  in  the  hands  of  Lord  Kenmare, 
his  lordship  wrote  to  me  shortly  after  to  say,  that  he  had  no  written 
pledge  from  the  Prince — that  the  declaration  made  to  him  by  his 
Royal  Highness  was  not  in  writing,  but  was  merely  verbal.  I  did 
then  press  upon  his  lordship  to  allow  me  to  put  before  the  public,  in 
an  authentic  shape,  the  particulars  of  such  verbal  declaration,  and 
declared,  if  he  would  do  so,  my  readiness  to  contradict  the  existence 
of  the  pledge  in  writing.  But  I  could  not  succeed  in  obtaining  from 
him  the  publication  under  his  direct  sanction,  of  the  precise  nature 
and  of  the  particulars  of  a  communication  in  which  millions  are  in- 
terested. 

"  Since  that  period  the  noble  lord  is  no  more.  Witli  his  virtues, 
his  secret,  if  I  may  so  call  it,  is  buried.  Nothing  remains  of  it  but 
the  fading  recollection  of  persons  who  have  heard  the  language  of  the 
Prince  only  from  the  report  of  the  noble  earl.  There  lives,  how- 
ever, another  noble  earl,  and  long  may  he  live  for  Ireland — the  Earl 
of  Fingal  (hear,  hear,)  to  whom  a  similar  communication  was  made 
by  the  Prince  of  Wales.  It  was  not  made  in  any  confidence,  but  ex- 
pressly for  the  purpose  of  being  circulated  amongst  the  people  of 
Ireland,  and  to  serve  as  a  soothing  balm  to  assuage  the  fever  of  a 
disappointment  created  by  a  rejection  of  their  petition.  This  debla- 
ration  of  his  Royal  Highness  to  the  Earl  of  Fingal  contained  the 
same  assertion  of  his  having  been  prevented  by  motives  of  delicacy 
and  respect  from  giving  us  public  support,  and  of  his  conviction  of 
the  justice  of  our  claims,  and  his  determination  to  assist,  when- 
ever he  might  be  able  to  afibrd  constitutional  assistance. 

"  I  am  enabled  to  be  thus  minute,  because  the  particulars  of  his 
communication  have  been  preserved  with  an  accuracy  suitable  to  their 
importance.  The  Earl  of  Fingal,  who  is  placed  at  the  head  of  the 
Catholics  of  Ireland,  much  more  by  the  unfading  lustre  of  his  virtues, 
than  by  his  exalted  rank  and  ancient  honours — Lord  Fingal,  on  the 
very  day  of  his  communication,  put  the  particulars  upon  paper ;  and 
as  Lord  Clifden,  and  the  late  Lord  Petre,  were  pi*esent  at  the  con- 
versation, the  paper  was  shown  to  them  on  the  same  day,  and  they 
declared  the  perfect  accuracy  of  its  contents.     This  it  is  that  I  am 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,  M.P.  363 

desirous  should  come  before  the  public,  and  remain  for  ever  as  an 
authentic  document  of  the  free  and  unbiassed  opinion  and  judgment 
of  his  Royal  Highness  the  Prince  of  Wales  in  our  favour. 

"  I  repeat,  that  no  delicacy  is  violated  by  the  disclosure  of  this  fact ; 
it  was  communicated  to  me  without  any  circumstance  betokening 
confidence.  I  heard  it  from  the  noble  earl  in  Fitzpatrick's  shop  ; 
there  were  three  or  four  others  present — one  of  whom  was  my 
respected  friend  Captain  Bryan  ;  and,  indeed,  from  its  nature,  it 
could  not  have  been  intended  for  any  secrecy. 

"  But  this  was  not  the  only  authentic  proof  we  had  of  the  senti- 
ments of  his  Royal  Highness ;  there  are  several  gentlemen  present, 
to  whom  a  similar  pledge  from  the  Prince  was  communicated,  by  his 
Grace  the  Duke  of  Bedford,  whilst  he  was  Lord  Lieutenant  in  this 
country.  Indeed,  I  understand  that  nothing  could  be  more  distinct 
than  the  promises  held  out  in  that  respect  by  the  Duke  of  Bedford ; 
and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  his  Grace  did  not  so  promise  without 
the  express  authority  of  his  Royal  Highness.  With  these  sure  grounds 
of  hope — with  a  reliance  upon  the  honour  and  integrity  of  the  Prince — 
with  all  the  confidence  inspired  by  his  declaration,  that  power  was 
a  trust  for  the  people,  the  Catholics  of  Ireland  viewed  his  acces- 
sion to  power  with  the  most  ardent,  the  most  affectionate  demonstra- 
tions of  loyalty. 

"  That  loyalty  does,  and  will  ever  remain  unshaken ;  but  subse- 
quent events  have  damped  the  ardour  of  our  affections,  and  turned 
into  the  cold  observances  of  duty,  those  feelings  of  enthusiastic 
attachment  with  which  we  were  prepared  to  support  a  prince  who 
should  rule  for  the  good  of  the  people.  If  those  feelings  had  been 
encouraged — if  their  growth  had  been  fostered,  what  a  different 
scene  would  Ireland  at  this  day  present !  Instead  of  detaining  an 
army  in  her  barracks,  her  entire  population,  her  instinctively  martial 
population,  would  have  furnished  ten  armies  for  the  public  service, 
and  the  tranquillity  of  the  land  would  be  secured  by  an  unarmed 
police  constable.  Would  to  God  I  could  contribute  to  produce  such 
a  state  of  the  public  mind !  But,  if  we  cannot  revive  those  hopes, 
let  us,  at  least,  leave  the  grounds  upon  which  they  stood  as  an  imper- 
ishable record  of  our  right  to  freedom.  Our  children  will,  in  addition 
to  the  arguments  in  favour  of  their  liberty,  be  able  to  adduce  the 
authority  of,  first,  nearly  a  majority  of  the  House  of  Lords ;  secondly, 
of  repeated  majorities  in  the  House  of  Commons ;  and  thirdly,  of 
his  Royal  Highness  the  Prince  Regent. 


364  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

"  Besides,  the  authentication  of  this  pledge  may  serve  as  a  check 
upon  the  favourites  and  ministers  of  his  Royal  Highness.  With  the 
knowledge  of  the  existence  of  these  pledges,  that  pious  and  very 
exemplary  character.  Lord  Yarmouth,  may  cease  to  infuse  scruples 
into  the  mind  of  the  Prince.  Nothing  can  be  more  admirable  than 
Lord  Yarmouth's  zeal  for  the  Protestant  religion  ;  he  is  an  ornament 
to  the  Protestant  church,  and  it  is  certainly  a  consolation  to  the 
people  of  Ireland  to  be  able  to  attribute  their  suiFerings  to  the 
hallowed  source  of  that  noble  lord's  piety.  But  he  will  not,  zealot 
though  he  be,  he  will  not  advise  his  royal  master  to  leave  those  his 
solemn  pledges  unredeemed  ;  neither  will  any  minister  attempt  to 
advise  the  Prince  to  violate  his  word,  or  to  enter  into  an  unconstitu- 
tional and  unbecoming  canvass  against  us,  or  to  hold  out  promotion 
in  the  army  as  a  reward  for  betraying  our  rights  ;  neither  will  any 
prime  minister  of  the  Regent  dare  to  suggest  the  holding  up  of  any 
office,  such,  for  example,  as  that  lately  held  by  Lord  Ormonde,  to 
auction,  to  ascertain  who  could  bid  most  parliamentary  interest 
against  the  Catholics,  as  the  price  of  such  a  place. 

"Nothing  of  that  kind  can  occur  to  the  mind  of  a  minister 
who  beholds  how  solemnly  his  Royal  Highness  has  promised 
to  us  his  countenance  and  protection.  I  think,  therefore,  you 
will  not  hesitate  to  accede  to  my  motion.  My  object  is,  that  it 
should  be  carried  into  effect  in  the  manner  most  respectful  to  the 
Earl  of  Fingal ;  I  feel  for  that  noble  lord  the  most  profound  respect. 
The  Irish  people  owe  him,  and  they  cherish  for  him,  the  most  un- 
bounded gratitude.  I  shall  deeply  regret  if  my  motion  gives  him 
one  unpleasant  sensation  ;  I  think  it  is  not  calculated,  as  it  certainly 
is  not  intended  to  do  so.  And  should  his  lordship  think  that  this  is 
not  the  moment  to  give  to  the  public  the  document  in  question,  I 
shall  respect  the  delicacy  that  may  suggest  a  decision,  which  in  itself 
I  would  consider  unfavourable  to  the  just  hopes  of  the  Catholics. 

"  Mr.  O'ConneU  concluded  by  moving : — 

"  '  That  the  secretary  be  directed  to  write  to  the  Earl  of  Fingal,  in  the  most 
respectful  manner,  to  request  of  him  to  communicate  to  the  board  the  contents 
of  the  paper,  containing  the  declaration  of  his  Royal  Highness  the  Prince  of 
Wales  on  the  Catholic  claims,  made  to  his  Lordship,  in  the  presence  of  Viscount 
Clifden  and  Lord  Petre.' 

"  Major  Bryan  boi*e  testimony  to  the  accuracy  of  Mr.  O'ConneU 
in  the  statement  he  had  made  relative  to  Lord  Fingal.  He  (Major 
Bryan)  had  been  present,  as  was  also  Sir  Francis  Goold,  when  the 


/• 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  365 

noble  earl  related  the  entire  circumstances  of  the  declaration  of  the 
Regent. 

"  Mr.  Bagot  said  he  was  happy  that  the  result  of  the  learned 
gentleman's  oration  was  such  as  to  save  him  the  trouble  of  going 
over  the  numerous  topics  he  had  introduced,  and  to  render  it  only- 
necessary  for  him  to  give  a  short  opinion  upon  the  expediency  of  his 
motion,  as  it  respected  the  personal  feelings  of  Lord  Fingal.  And 
as  it  regarded  his  lordship's  private  sentiment,  he  had  no  hesitation 
in  avowing,  that  it  met  with  his  most  decided  disapprobation.  He 
knew  Lord  Fingal  would  not  consent  to  the  request  that  was  about 
to  be  made  to  him — nay,  he  had  authority  for  avowing  the  fact. 

"  Why  should  he  then  be  placed  in  an  invidious  and  disagreeable 
position  ? 

"  Mr.  Bagot  (in  tlie  woi'ds  of  the  report  we  quote — viz.,  the  Dublin 
Evening  Post)  concluded  a  very  dignified  and  animated  speech,  by 
deprecating  a  warfare  with  the  first  magistrate  of  these  realms,  who 
could  do  service,  and  might  do  injury.  Some  gentlemen  seemed  to 
consider  such  a  warfare  extremely  useful  in  promoting  the  success  of 
the  cause  of  Ireland.         ........ 

*'  Mr.  O'Connell  said  he  had  but  one  word  to  reply  to  that 
assertion  of  Mr.  Bagot's,  which  attributed  to  the  violence  and  disre- 
spectful conduct  of  the  Catholics,  the  opposition  they  had  had  to 
encounter  from  a  certain  quarter.  That  gentleman  was  strangely 
mistaken.  It  was  surprising  how  he  could  be  so  very  much  mistaken. 
It  was  long  before  the  resolutions  he  alluded  to,  that  the  opposition 
to  the  Catholics  commenced. 

"  Nay,  long  before  those  resolutions,  and  while  the  Catholics  were 
in  the  midst  of  their  praises  of  the  Regent,  and  full  of  their  hopes  from 
him,  while  they  were  calling  his  Royal  Highness  their  early  friend — 
their  best  and  proudest  hope — it  was  then,  even  then,  in  the  fuU  tide 
of  their  warm  affections,  that  they  had  been  met  by  a  state  prosecu- 
tion— that  they  were  handed  over  to  the  Attorney-General,  and  to  the 
Duke  of  Richmond,  and  to  Lord  Manners,  that  their  delegates  were 
arrested,  and  their  meetings  dispersed  ! 

"  It  was  at  that  period  of  confidence  and  affection  that  the  com- 
mon police  justices  were  sent  to  arrest  the  noble  earl  at  their 
head ! 

"  The  resolutions  to  which  Mr.  Bagot  had  alluded  were  ?iot  the 
causes  of  the  opposition  to  us  ;  they  were,  on  the  contrary,  the  conse- 
quences of  that  very  opposition.     They  followed  as  the  effect  of  that 


366  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

opposition  ;  they  did  not  precede  nor  create  it.  It  was  after  the 
prosecution  against  us  had  commenced,  long  after,  that  we  publicly 
mourned  the  '  unworthy  witchery'  which  had,  with  magic  touch, 
blasted  our  fervent  hopes,  and  blighted  our  fairest  projects! 

"  It  would  seem,  too,  that  Mr.  Bagot  threatens  us  with  the  aliena- 
tion of  the  mind  of  his  Royal  Highness  from  us  and  from  our  cause. 
He  forgets  that -the  Prince  is  of  a  very  forgiving  disposition.  Before 
he  attained  power,  his  royal  brother,  the  Duke  of  Cumberland,  gave 
him,  it  is  said,  no  great  cause  for  ardent  affection.  They  were  sup- 
posed to  be  upon  no  very  good  terms,  yet  he  has  become,  and  most 
deservedly,  a  prime  favourite,  so  that,  although  that  royal  duke  is 
valiantly  serving  his  country,  and  putting  down  the  French,  one  is 
surprised  he  can  be  spared  at  home  !  (Cheers  and  laughtei'.) 

"  Again,  was  there  ever  so  decided  an  enemy  to  the  Prince  as  the 
man  whom  he  selected  as  his  first  and  favourite  prime  minister,  the 
God-like  Perceval  ?  "What  is  it,  too,  that  has  attached  him  to  Lord 
Yarmouth  ?  But  I  need  not  press  the  subject.  Can  it  be  otherwise 
than  clear  that  his  Royal  Highness  is  not  actuated  by  mere  low  and 
selfish  motives  ?     He  has  neither  predilection  nor  resentments  ! 

"  Mr.  Bagot  made  a  brief  reply,  chiefly  in  explanation,  and  the 
board  then  divided : — 

"For  Mr.  O'Connell's  motion  (that  Lord  Fingal  should  be  written 
to  respecting  the  written  account  of  the  Eegent's  declaration  to 
him  in  favour  of  the  Catholics)  ....        36 

Against  the  motion  .  .  .  .  .  .  .6 

Majority  in  favour  ......        30 

*'  Major  Bryan  then  moved,  pursuant  to  notice : — 

"  '  That  the  Right  Honourable  the  Earl  of  Donoughmore  be  requested  to 
present  the  Catholic  petition,  which  had  been  some  time  since  handed  to  him, 
forthwith,  to  the  House  of  Lords.' 

"  Mr.  Hussey  suggested  some  preliminary  communication  with  his 
lordship.  Some  difiiculty  might  arise  as  to  the  precisely  proper 
course  of  preferring  the  application  to  the  House  of  Lords. 

"  He  did  not,  however,  press  his  opposition. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  said  that  the  motion  had  his  hearty  concurrence, 
and  he  rose  merely  to  express  the  full  confidence  of  the  Irish  people, 
in  the  Earl  of  Donoughmore.    In  his  family,  the  Catholics  had  found 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,     M.P.  3G7 

their  first  and  their  best  advocates — their  sincerest  friends.  That 
noble  earl  would  support  their  cause,  as  the  cause  of  a  great  people 
ought  to  be  suppoi-ted.  He  would  rest  it  upon  the  basis  of  right  and 
justice,  and  give  to  every  class  of  Dissenters  the  benefit  of  the  prin- 
ciple for  which  the  Catholics  contended — the  principle  of  universal 
liberty  of  conscience. 

"  Lord  Donoughmore  would  enter  into  no  compromises  unbecoming 
so  great  a  principle.  He  would  not  seek  to  buy  over  one  enemy  by 
bartering  for  his  vote  part  of  our  liberties ;  nor  would  he  seek  to 
purchase  another  enemy  by  discounting  with  him  part  of  our  religion. 
The  Catholics  could  confide  in  the  Earl  of  Donoughmore;  in  his 
talents,  his  integrity,  his  manliness,  and  his  devotion  to  his  country, 
they  must  repose  unlimited  confidence.  It  was  in  the  expression  of 
that  confidence,  aqd  of  their  gratitude,  that  they  might  fail,  because 
language  was  inadequate  to  expi-ess  the  fulness  of  the  Irish  heart, 
towards  that  friend  who  had  never  been  even  mistaken  in  his  advo- 
cacy of  their  cause. 

"  It  was  deeply  to  be  regretted  that  our  other  friends  did  not  imitate 
that  noble  lord.  It  was  deeply  to  be  deplored  that  they  had  so  widely 
mistaken  the  proper  course.  No  man  could  be  absurd  enough  to 
doubt  for  one  moment  the  sincerity  or  the  pure  patriotism  of  Grattan. 
But  it  was  the  misfortune  of  Ireland  that  his  eye,  rolling  in  the  fine 
frenzy  of  poetic  eloquence,  was  so  filled  with  its  own  light  as  to  be 
quite  insufiicient  for  the  minute  details  of  practical  drudgery.  No 
man  admires  Mr.  Grattan  more — few  admire  him  so  much  as  I  do  ; 
and  I  respect,  with  bitter  sorrow,  the  errors  of  his  judgment — his 
heart  was  never  wrong. 

"  I  may  (said  Mr.  O'Connell,)  be  calumniated  for  speaking  the 
truth  to  you  ;  but  I  owe  it  to  ray  country  to  express — to  express  with 
great  respect  for  our  friends — to  express  my  entire  disapprobation  of 
the  manner  in  which  they  have  lately  conducted  our  cause.  They 
imagined,  perhaps,  that  they  showed  impartiality  in  their  scorn  of 
our  assistance ;  or,  perhaps,  they  still  entertain — justly  perhaps — the 
notion,  that  there  is  in  Protestant  intellect  a  natural  and  moral  supe- 
riority over  that  of  papists,  at  least  of  Irish  papists,  which  cannot  be 
surrendered ! 

"  But  see  what  the  facts  are,  Mr.  Grattan,  I  understand,  took  over 
with  him  to  England  a  draft  of  a  bill  for  our  relief,  drawn  in  Dublin, 
last  winter,  by,  I  believe,  Mr.  Wallace,  Mr.  Burton,  and  Mr.  Bur- 
roughs.     Not  a  single  Catholic — lay  or  ecclesiastical — merchant, 


368  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

lawyer,  or  priest  was  consulted  upon  it.  Surely  we  are  not  quite  so 
dull  as  not  to  know  what  have  served  us  ;  but,  no — not  one  Catholic 
was  consulted.  This  bill  arrived  in  England,  but  there,  I  have  heard, 
was  altogether  abandoned,  and  a  new  bill  got  up  by  some  worthy 
English  gentleman,  who  would,  I  presimie,  feel  something  like  an 
insult,  if  it  were  suggested  to  him  that  we  could  assist  him.  Our 
delegates  were  in  London ;  they  were  never  consulted ;  they  almost 
obtruded  their  advice;  they  were  received  with  courtesy,  but  all 
confidence  was  withheld  from  them.  Well,  this  bill  is  at  last  pro- 
duced, and'  it  turns  out  to  be  just  what  our  enemies  could  have 
wished.  It  is  narrow  and  limited  in  principle,  or  rather,  it  asserts 
no  principle.  It  is  slovenly  and  untechnical  in  its  language.  It  is 
inoperative  as  to  any  substantial  relief.  It  is  introduced,  to  be  sure, 
with  all  the  pride,  pomp,  and  circumstance  of  eloquence,  more  than 
human ;  but  the  very  person  who  introduced  it  was  only  the  first 
victim  to  its  delusion. 

"  There  never  lived  a  man  less  capable  of  practising  any  deception 
than  Mr.  Grattan ;  but  the  very  generosity  and  nobleness  of  his  mind 
exposes  him  to  the  delusions  of  others.  In  the  meantime  an  attempt 
is  made  to  stifle  the  sentiment  of  the  board.  "We  were  to  have  been 
silenced,  lest  we  should  disturb  the  course  of  this  further  relief ;  and, 
in  the  interval,  a  secret  agency  was  known  to  be  on  foot  in  many 
quarters  amongst  us.  They  thought  of  sharing  the  spoils  before  they 
could  be  certain  of  the  victory.  Silence  was  the  order  of  the  day  ; 
and  Mr.  Grattan  was  left  in  his  error,  because  some  amongst  us 
conceived  they  had  an  interest  in  carrying  any  bill.  I  have  even  seen 
a  letter  from  a  whig  baronet,  in  parliament,  in  which  he  suggested 
the  whiggish  idea  of  forming  a  party  in  the  board  in  favour  of  this 
bill.  Part  of  that  letter  was  published  in  the  newspapers  ;  but  this 
patriotic  idea  was  suppressed :  at  length,  however,  our  dissatisfaction 
began  to  appear  ;  spite  of  every  restraint,  it  burst  forth  ;  and  to  close 
the  curious  history  of  this  further  relief  bill,  the  Right  Hon.  Mr, 
Plunkett  came  over,  with  the  assent  and  approbation  of  my  Lord 
Viscount  Castlereagh,  to  reconcile  all  parties  to  this  bill ! 

"  Strange  mission !  What !  to  reconcile  the  Catholics  to  a  bill  for 
their  relief !  What !  to  entreat  of  the  Catholics  to  be  emancipated  ? 
He  came  over  to  reconcile  every  body — he  reconciled  no  body ;  and, 
in  the  meantime,  this  bill  met  the  fate  it  deserved,  and  all  Ireland 
rejoiced  in  its  extinction. 

"  I  do,  therefore,  solemnly  protest  against  the  course  that  has  been 


DANTEL    O'CONNELL,     ESQ.,    M.V.  369 

adopted  upon  this  occasion.  Grattan,  the  patriot — G rattan  needs  but 
to  be  informed  of  your  wishes  to  comply  with  them.  Surely  Canning, 
though  a  powerful  framer  of  jests,  is  not  the  Catholic  cause ;  nor  is 
Castlereagh,  though  a  speeching  man,  the  representative  of  the  Irish 
sentiment.  Let  us,  of  all  things,  get  rid  of  secret  negotiation  :  our 
friends  are  deceived,  constantly  deceived,  by  private  information. 
Let  us,  also,  take  care  to  disentangle  our  cause  from  the  jobbing  of 
the  English  Catholics  ;  they  have  j  ust  thought  fit  to  signalize  their 
Elnglish  magnanimity,  by  sacrificing  to  their  enemies  the  first  of  their 
bishops ;  and  they  have  humanely  attempted  to  bring  the  grey  head 
of  that  venerable  prelate  in  sori-ow  and  disgrace  to  his  grave.  They 
remind  one  of  a  band  of  negro  slaves,  who,  upon  the  promise  of  a 
half  holiday,  celebrate  their  joy,  by  crushing  with  their  chains  some 
unfortunate  fellow-slave  who  presumed  to  think  that  black  was  as 
good  as  white,  and  that  colour  was  no  justification  of  slavery ! 

"  "Well,  be  it  so.  They  have  censured  the  agent  of  our  bishops  ; 
but,  in  recompense,  they  have  thanked  Lord  Castlereagh !  Did  they 
never  hear  that  the  Irish  people  were  scourged,  and  picketted,  and 
tortured  ?  Did  they  never  hear  that  the  lash  smacked,  and  the  shriek 
resounded,  and  the  cry  of  agony  was  heard,  and  the  yell  of  the  tortured 
rent  the  air,  and  that  this  full  chorus  was  music  to  the  ear  of  Lord 
Castlereagh  !  Yes,  they  did  hear  it  all ;  and  therefore  it  was  that 
these  English  thanked  my  Lord  Castlereagh,  and  censured  their 
prelate. 

"  This  is  a  subject  I  will  beg  leave  to  bring  again  before  the  board. 
We  owe  it  to  Ireland  to  preclude  the  possibility  of  any  interference 
of  any  English  Catholic  with  our  cause.  We  owe  it  mainly  to  one 
of  them  that  we  are  still  unemancipated.  Let  me  be  pardoned  for 
thus  ti'espassing  on  your  time.  I  need  not,  in  conclusion,  say,  that 
the  motion  of  my  respected  friend  has  my  entire  approbation. 

"  The  resolution  was  then  put  from  the  chair,  and  carried 
unanimously. 

"  Major  Bryan,  wishing  that  the  resolution  should  be  conveyed 
to  Earl  Donoughmore  in  the  most  respectful  manner  possible, 
moved — 

•'  '  That  the  chairman,  Sir  Thomas  Esmonde,  be  requested  to  transmit  the 
same.' 

"  This  being  seconded,  was  carried  unanimously. 
"  Mr.  O'Connell  gave  notice  of  a  motion  of  thanks  to  the  General 

2  B 


370  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

Assembly  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  for  its  recognition,  at  its  late 
meeting,  of  the  freedom  of  conscience. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  gave  notice  of  a  motion  of  thanks  to  the  Right 
Rev.  Dr.  Milner,  and  the  meeting  adjourned." 

His  allusion  to  the  conduct  of  the  English  Catholics  towards 
"the  first  of  their  bishops — the  agent  of  the  Irish  bishop," — 
referred  to  the  manner  in  which  they  had  treated  the  celebrated 
Dr.  Milner,  Vicar- Apostolic  of  the  midland  district  in  England, 
a  prelate  to  whom  the  foregoing  expressions  strictly  applied. 

Throughout  all  the  Catholic  agitation — but  eminently  during 
the  "  Veto  "  and  "  Securities'  "  discussions  of  the  earlier  years 
of  this  century — the  English  Catholics  manifested  a  sad  spirit  of 
compromise,  not  only  in  matters  political,  but  in  those  of  an 
ecclesiastical  and  religious  nature. 

Prominent  amongst  the  advocates  of  compromise  was  the  late 
Charles  Butler,  of  Lincoln's- Inn,  whose  abilities  and  high  legal 
acquirements  rendered  him  the  more  dangerous  in  the  unworthy 
course  he  and  his  fellow- Catholics  of  England  were  pursuing. 

Dr.  Milner,  from  the  prompting  of  his  own  clear  head  and 
right  heart,  and  also  from  the  representations  of  the  Irish 
Catholic  Bishops,  whose  agent  he  was,  put  himself  strongly  in 
opposition  to  Mr.  Butler  and  his  party  at  several  periods  of  the 
"  Veto  "  and  "  Securities'  "  discussions,  but  particularly  at  the 
juncture  to  which  our  Memoir  has  reached. 

All  that  is  further  necessary  to  be  known  preparatory  to  the 
motion  of  thanks  to  the  Right  Rev.  Prelate,  of  which  Mr. 
O'Connell  gave  notice  at  the  last  meeting  we  have  quoted  from, 
can  be  gathered  from  the  following  extracts  from  the  news- 
papers : — 

"  At  a  numerous  meeting  of  the  General  Board  of  British  Ca- 
tholics, assembled  at  the  Earl  of  Shrewsbury's,  in  Stanhope-street,  on 
Saturday,  May,  29,  1813, 

"  The  Earl  of  Shrewsbury  in  the  chaii' — 

•  *  It  was  resolved 

[Here  follow  two  long,  wordy  resolutions,  thanking  the  origi- 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  371 

nators  and  supporters  of  the  recently-rejected  Catholic  bill  in 
the  Commons,  and  expressing  confidence  in  the  good  intentions 
of  the  Legislature.] 

"3.  Resolved — '  That  a  paper  entitled,  "  A  Brief  Memorial  on  the  Catholic 
Bill,"  and  signed  John  Milner,  D.D.,  having  been  distributed  to  members  of 
the  House  of  Commons,  during  the  discussion  of  the  bill  brought  forward  for 
the  removal  of  the  civil  and  military  disqualifications  under  which  his  Majesty's 
Roman  Catholic  subjects  now  labour,  and  containing  assertions  derogatory  to 
the  honour  and  the  loyalty  of  the  Roman  Catholic  laity,  and  inferring  con- 
sequences from  the  bill,  if  carried  into  execution — not  warranted  by  \tfi  proposed 
enactments,  and  highly  injurious  to  the  political  integrity  and  wisdom  of  the 
framers  and  supporters  of  the  bill  (!)  and  directly  opposite  to  their  declared  in- 
tentions, as  stated  in  the  preamble  to  the  bill,  this  board  feel  themselves  called 
upon  to  publish  the  following  resolution,  passed  by  them  in  May,  1810,  viz. : 

"  '  That  we  do  not  consider  ourselves  as  implicated  in,  or  in  any  way 
responsible  for,  the  political  opinions,  conduct,  or  writings,  of  the  Right  Rev. 
Doctor  Milner,  Vicar  Apostolic  of  the  Midland  District,'  &c.,  &c. 

"  Resolved  further — '  That  Charles  Butler,  Esq.,  is  entitled  to  the  thanks  of 
the  General  Board  of  British  Catholics,  for  his  great  exertions  in  support  of 
the  Catholic  cause  ;  and  that  the  charge  made  by  the  Right  Reverend  Doctor 
Milner  against  him,  is  a  gross  calumny.  (! ! !) 

"  '  That,  under  the  present  circumstances,  it  is  highly  expedient  that  the 
Right  Reverend  Doctor  Milner  should  cease  to  be  a  member  of  the  Private 
Board,  or  Select  Committee,  appointed  by  the  General  Board  of  British  Catho- 
lics, on  Thursday,  May  13,  1813.' 

(Signed)  "Shrewsbury,  Chairman." 

It  was,  indeed,  high  time  that  that  revered  and  illustrious 
prelate  should  cease  to  be  a  member  of  a  board  where,  to  say 
nothing  of  other  delinquencies,  Catholics  would  speak  of  and 
treat  a  bishop  in  such  a  manner ! 

No  wonder  that  among  the  sons  and  descendants  of  such  men, 
we  should  hear  that  in  our  own  day  it  is  a  practice  to  treat  their 
chaplains,  anointed  priests  of  the  Catholic  Church,  like  upper 
servants — at  best,  condescending  to  allow  them  to  appear  in 
their  drawing-rooms  and  dining  saloons  '■^  only"  as  we  knew  an 
English  Catholic  of  rank  once  to  say,  "  xohen  there  is  no 
company  !  ! .'" 

Dr.  Milner  wrote  a  very  powerful  reply  to  these  base  and 
insolent  resolutions,  protesting  against  the  assumption  by  the 
English  Catholic  Board  that  they  represented  Catholic  feeling, 
denying  the  charge  of  having  himself  assumed  to  do  more  than 
speak  the  sentiments  of  the  Irish  bishops,  and  strongly  renewing 
his  protest  against  the  bill  that  was  the  subject  of  controversy. 


372  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

He  proved  that  Mr.  Butler  (when  an  act  for  the  relief  of  the 
English  Catholics  was  under  discussion,  in  1791,)  had  strongly 
exerted  himself,  fortunately  in  vain,  to  support  the  insertion  of 
a  form  of  oath  for  Catholics,  in  which  they  should  thus  describe 
themselves  : — "  I  hereby  declare  myself  to  be  a  protest- 
ing Catholic  Dissenter  !" 

The  Evening  Post  of  the  10th  June,  1813,  gives  the  fol- 
lowing : — 

"  Extract  of  a  private  letter  received  at  our  office  this  morning, 
dated — 

"  '  London,  Monday,  June  7. 

'"Two  English  Catholics  of  rank  waited  upon  his  Grace  the  Duke  of 
Norfolk,  on  Saturday  last,  to  inform  him  of  the  valorous  exploit  of  their  board, 
at  its  meeting  of  the  29th  ultimo,  in  expelling  the  venerable  Milner  from  their 
room,  with  shouts  of  indignity  and  wrath. 

"  '  The  Duke,  who  was  bred  a  Catholic,  retains  his  ancient  habits  of  intimacy 
with  the  bishop,  and  although  he  renounced  Popery  for  political  pursuits,  yet 
he  has  not,  like  vulgar  renegades,  withdrawn  his  support  from  the  Catholic 
cause.  His  two  noble  visitors  having  detailed  to  him  their  honourable  triumph 
of  the  29th  May — "  Aye,  you  have  done  well,"  observed  his  grace,  with  the 
keenest  irony,  "  I  applaud  you  for  this  ;  it  is  just  what  I  ought  to  wish.  You 
are  following  my  example.  You  will  soon  become  good  Protestants.  I  have 
been  only  thirty-jive  years  beforehand  with  you.  But,  after  all,  let  me  tell  you, 
that  Doctor  Milner  is  only  defending  the  true  old  Catholic  religion.'^ 

' '  '  The  visitors  felt  the  sting — made  their  congee,  and  returned  to  Stanhope- 
treet.' " 

On  the  12th  of  June,  the  meeting  of  the  Catholic  Board,  at 
which  Mr.  O'Connell  was  to  have  moved  the  vote  of  thanks  to 
Dr.  Milner,  of  which  he  had  given  notice,  the  proceedings  were 
opened  with  the  reading  of  the  answer  of  the  Earl  of  Donough- 
more,  to  the  communication  made  to  him  from  the  board  on 
Major  Bryan's  motion. 

His  answer  was  unsatisfactory  and  discouraging ;  informing 
them,  amongst  other  things,  that  "  their  parliamentary  friends 
had  come  to  the  decision  of  refraining  from  any  agitation  of  the 
Catholic  question  in  the  House  of  Lords  during  that  session." 

Nicholas  Mahon  pressed  for  a  rescinding  of  Major  Bryan's 
resolution,  in  consequence. 

Mr.  O'Connell  protested  against  it.     "  If  ministers  were  to 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,  M.P.  373 

see  that  his  Lordship  could  restrain  the  Catholics  from  present- 
ing petitions,  all  the  inconveniences  which  these  petitions  had 
brought  upon  them  would  be  attributed  to  his  Lordship." 

He  then  brought  forward  one  of  his  notices  of  motion  of  that 
day  for  an  address  to  the  people. 

Some  opposition  having  been  made  to  his  proceeding  with 
that  first — 


"  Mr.  O'Connell,  however,  conceived  himself  clearly  entitled  to 
move  any  particular  one  he  chose,  as  (there  being  no  notices  for  this 
day  except  those  given  by  himself),  he  could  not  interfere  with  the 
convenience  of  any  other  gentleman.  The  first  thing  on  which  he 
should  call  the  attention  of  the  board,  was  the  address  to  the  people 
on  the  present  critical  situation  of  their  affairs,  of  which  he  had  given 
notice. 

"  He  knew  that  anxious  and  persevering  attempts  were  making 
to  renew  the  associations  which  had  been,  on  some  other  occasions 
before,  formed  for  treasonable  purposes.  That  such  efforts  were 
going  forward  he  was  perfectly  satisfied ;  he  had  it  from  au- 
thority upon  which  he  could  rely,  and  his  object  was  to  guard 
his  generous,  open-hearted,  but  sometimes  inconsiderate  countrymen, 
from  falling  victims  to  the  snares  which  were  cautiously  and  care- 
fully set  for  them  by  their  designing  enemies.  Every  person  who 
heard  him  was  aware,  that  plans  of  the  kind  had  not  only  been 
as  heretofore  conceived,  but  had  actually,  to  a  certain  extent, 
proved  successful.  In  the  very  city  of  Dublin  had  the  stratagem 
been  practised.  A  meeting  was  organized  by  a  man  of  the  name  of 
Fisher.  He  persuaded  these  poor  deluded  creatures,  that  he  was 
acting  with  the  privity  and  consent  of  the  Catholic  board — that 
their  secretary,  Mr.  Hay,  had  frequent  communication  with  him, 
and  that  they  were  ready  to  enter  iuto  i*ebellion,  to  seize  the 
barracks  and  the  Castle.  (A  laugh.)  The  Catholic  board  discovered 
the  nefarious  trick,  and,  with  the  prompt  sense  of  duty  and  loyalty 
which  always  characterised  them,  communicated  the  whole  to  his 
Majesty's  government.  Fisher,  however,  had  contrived  to  escape, 
was  never  since  found,  and  he  was,  probably,  enjoying  the  reward  of 
the  treachery,  even,  perhaps,  within  his  (Mr.  O'Connell's)  hearing. 

"  The  government  had  ever  been  most  laudibly  persevering  in 
their  efforts   to   detect   the  individual    who    promoted   treason,    and 


374  MEMOIR     AND    SPEECHES    OF 

followed  even  the  remotest  scent  that  could  lead  to  his  punishment 
in  every  instance  but  this  ;  here,  however,  he  could  not  discover  that 
praiseworthy  activity. 

"  Again,  in  Kilkenny,  was  it  not  notorious,  that  daring  attempts 
had  been  made,  even  by  official  characters,  to  involve  the  Catholics 
in  practices  ruinous  to  their  fame  and  to  their  lives  ?  It  could  not 
be  forgotten  that,  in  Limerick,  a  person  who  was  himself  a  Pro- 
testant formed  an  association  of  unfortunate  dupes,  amounting 
to  eighteen  in  number,  and  swore  those  men  to  subvert  that  govern- 
ment which  was  of  the  religion  he  professed  and  disgraced,  and  to 
substitute  a  Catholic  ascendancy  in  its  stead.  Yet,  in  Limerick, 
which  had  in  modern  times  been  found  to  be  so  invariably  attached 
to  everything  Protestant  and  everything  loyal,  no  magistrate  could 
be  found  to  act !  At  length,  compulsion  and  shame  caused  this 
horrid  incendiary  to  be  committed,  but  he  was  not  detained  twenty- 
four  hours  in  custody ;  and  though  not  less  than  ten  king's  counsel 
go  that  circuit,  not  one  of  them  received  instructions  to  prosecute 
him.  When  he  (Mr.  Connell)  perceived  this,  he  preferred  bills  of 
indictment  against  the  man,  when,  so  disaffected  were  the  famous 
Lord  Kiltarton's  grand  jury  to  his  Majesty's  government,  that  they 
ignored  the  bills,  although  they  had  the  distinct  evidence  of  two 
unimpeachable  witnesses,  that  the  accused  was  guilty  of  treason  !  !  ! 

"  Three  emissaries  were  dispatched  by  the  Limerick  party  into 
the  county  of  Kerry  to  seduce  the  Catholics  there,  as  twelve  of  their 
brethren  had  been,  on  a  former  occasion,  seduced  at  Cork,  under 
a  promise  of  taking  them  to  the  Continent,  and  procuring  them 
twelve  generalships  in  the  French  army.  When  they  arrived  at 
Cork,  they  were  delivered  up  to  the  mayor.  The  agents  who  had 
been  sent  from  Limerick  to  Kerry  were  too  well  watched  to  effect 
anything  there,  but  the  people  could  not  be  too  much  on  their  guard. 
"  The  diffei'ent  attempts  he  had  mentioned  were  only  a  few 
branches  which  had  exploded  of  that  mine  of  treachery  which  was 
secretly  working,  and  against  which  it  was  his  anxious  desire  to 
provide.  He  was  well  informed,  that  in  the  counties  of  Carlow, 
Wicklow,  Wexford,  Kildare,  and  several  others,  agents  were  busy  in 
endeavouring  to  form  something  of  the  society  of  United  Irishmen, 
and  that  they  assured  their  intended  victims  that  the  Catholic  boai-d 
was  false  to  the  allegiance  it  had  sworn.  I  wish  the  people  to  have 
the  authority  of  the  board  itself  to  say  that  this  was  false,  and  thus 
confound  the  base  and  seditious  plotter.    The  loyalty  of  the  Catholic 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  375 

board  was  undoubted,  and  was  the  true  loyalty ;  it  was  not  that 
species  of  loyalty  which  would  wish  to  engross  every  blessing  of 
constitution  to  itself,  as  the  payment  due  to  its  obedience,  and 
exclude  every  other  person,  but  it  was  that  loyalty  which  would 
support  the  state  and  the  constitution,  by  uniting  every  heart  and 
hand  in  the  empire  in  its  defence. 

'*  It  was  to  preserve  the  people  from  the  slightest  violation  of  the 
law,  to  which  it  was  the  objects  of  those  agents  to  make  them  fall 
victims,  that  he  had  prepared  his  address.  While  the  Catholic 
is  refused  the  benefit  of  that  constitution,  which  is  the  common  birth- 
right of  every  British  subject,  his  opponent  is  admitted  into  the  society 
of  princes.  Mr.  O'Connell  concluded  by  moving  his  address,  and  ob- 
served, that  if  it  required  an  alteration  or  amendment,  the  plan  would 
be  to  refer  it  to  a  committee  to  make  the  necessary  alterations  or 
amendments.  "We  shall  give  it  presently  as  reported  fi'om  the 
committee. 

"  He  declared  the  address  did  not  include  any  charge  against  the 
government.  It  was  an  inferior  agency  it  had  in  view.  He  did  not 
ask  to  have  the  existence  of  the  plans,  which  his  address  was  in- 
tended to  render  inoperative,  taken  upon  his  assertion.  That  they 
had  existed,  was,  he  thought,  pretty  clearly  proved  by  the  facts  he  had 
mentioned  of  what  occurred  in  Dublin,  Kilkenny,  Limerick,  &c. ;  and 
that  they  at  present  existed  he  was  certain,  from  information  he  had 
received  ;  but  did  gentlemen  who  wished  for  a  committee,  think 
that  such  an  informing  spirit  had  gone  forth  among  the  people,  as  to 
make  them  come  forward  and  publish  the  names  of  the  actors  ?  If 
so,  they  were  mistaken. 

"  Committee  formed — Mr.  O'ConneU,  Chairman  ;  Mr.  Scully, 
Major  Bryan,  Mr.  N.  P.  O'Gorman,  Mr.  Mahon,  Mi*.  Finn,  and  Mr. 
M'Donnell. 

"  MOST  KEV.  DR.  TROY. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  rose  to  move  a  resolution  of  thanks  to  Archbishop 
Troy.  The  respected  prelate  had  made  a  lengthened  communication 
to  the  board.  By  this  he  marked  his  respect  for  the  body,  and 
for  that  purpose  only  did  he  make  it.  It  was  his  sincere  wish  to 
stand  weU  with  the  board,  and  conceiving  that  the  part  he  had  taken 
on  the  recent  very  delicate  occasion  requii'ed  he  should  be  explicit, 
lie  had  sent  the  communication  merely  to  aiFord  the  necessary  ex- 
planation.  Mr.  O'Connell  said,  he  thought  it  unnecesisary  after  saying 


376  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

thus  much,  to  take  up  any  more  time,  as  he  was  sure  there  would  not 
be  a  conti'adictory  voice.     He  then  moved  the  vote  of  thanks. 

"  DOCTOK  MILNER. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  said,  that  he  thought  it  was  now  too  late  to  pro- 
ceed with  a  motion  of  so  much  consequence,  as  that  of  which  he  had 
given  notice,  respecting  Doctor  Milner.  He  should,  therefore,  with- 
draw his  motion,  and  enter  a  fresh  notice. 

"  He  had  another  and  a  better  reason  than  the  lateness  of  the  hour 
for  postponing  it.  He  would  wait  to  consider  further  on  the  shape 
in  which  he  would  bring  it  forward.  He  had  heard  matter  even  that 
day  that  made  him  wish  to  defer  it,  and  would,  perhaps,  allow  him 
to  follow  a  mode  of  proceeding,  which  would  not  cause  any  division. 
(Hear,  hear.)  That  there  was  a  difference  of  opinion  upon  the 
subject  he  could  easily  perceive,  but  he  expected  that  the  considera- 
tion of  the  interval  would  tend  to  remove  all  difficulties,  and  bring 
gentlemen  to  the  desirable  unanimity  on  such  a  subject." 

On  the  10th  of  this  month  (June,  1813),  a  dinner  was  given, 
in  London,  to  the  Catholic  Delegates,  by  "  the  Friends  of 
Religious  Liberty." 

The  Duke  of  Bedford  was  in  the  chair,  and  was  supported 
by  the  Dukes  of  Kent  and  Sussex.  The  London  correspondent 
of  the  Post  thus  described  the  rest  of  the  attendance — 

"  Three  Dukes,  besides  those  of  the  blood  royal. 
Five  Marquises, 
Nineteen  Earls, 
Eight  Viscounts, 
Fifteen  Lords, 

Sixty  members  of  the  Lower  House, 
And,  altogether,  nearly  500  persons  at  dinner." 

The  Catholic  Delegates  who  were  thus  honoured,  were : — 

The  Earl  of  Fingal,  Messrs.  M.  M'Donnell, 
Earl  of  Kenmare,  Edward  Hay, 

Sir  Francis  Goold,  C.  Evans, 

Owen  O'Connor  (O'Connor  J.  Howley,  and 

Don),  V.  Bushell. 

Mr.  John  Bourke, 

The  proceedings  were  of  the  usual  class  of  complimentary 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,  M.P.  377 

dinners,  and  therefore  need  no  further  description.  The  Duke 
of  Sussex  and  Lord  Holland  denounced  the  Orange  system  with 
great  violence. 

The  Catholic  Board  met  on  Sunday,  the  13th,  to  arrange  the 
resolutions  for  the  aggregate  meeting  of  Catholics,  which  was 
appointed  for  the  following  Tuesday.  Mr.  O' Council  was  not 
present. 

In  his  absence.  Dr.  Dromgoole  took  up  the  question  about 
Dr.  Milner,  and  proposed  a  resolution  of  thanks  to  that  prelate, 
to  be  brought  forward  at  the  aggregate  meeting. 

He  was  warmly  supported,  and  carried  his  proposition  with 
their  aid,  by — 

Major  Bryan,  Dr.  Sheridan, 

Mr.  Scully,  Mr.  James  Lalor, 

Mr.  Wade,  Mr.  Mahon, 

Mr.  M'Laughlin,  Mr.  Doyle, 

Mr.  O'Callaghan,  Mr.  Finn, 

Mr.  E.  O'Callaghan,  Mr.  Byrne,  and 

Mr.  Kelly,  Mr.  Bernard  Coile. 
Mr.  Sweeny, 

The  motion  was  strongly  opposed  by  Mr.  Hussey  and  the 
following  gentlemen — 

Lord  Trimbleston,  Mr.  Koche, 

Mr.  Breer,  Mr.  Kooney, 

Mr.  Connell  O'Connell,  Mr.  Hughes,  and 

Mr.  Costigan,  Mr.  James  Farrell. 
Mr.  Kirwan, 

Before  the  aggregate  meeting,  accounts  arrived  in  town  from 
Cork  and  Limerick,  conveying  strong  resolutions  from  large 
assemblages  in  both  those  important  localities,  of  respect  and 
approbation  of  the  conduct  of  the  bishops,  and  entire  coincidence 
with  the  majority  in  the  Catholic  Board. 

The  theatre  in  Fishamble-street  was  again  the  scene  of  action, 
on  Tuesday,  the  15th  of  June.  Over  4,000  persons  were  cal- 
culated as  being  present,  and  the  boxes  were  filled  with  ladies. 
The  papers  stated  that  "  great  numbers  of  Protestants  (English, 
Scotch,  and  American)  were  present." 

Major  Bryan  in  the  chair. 


378  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

Mr.  Finn  was  chosen  secretary  to  the  meeting,  and  Nicholas 
Purcell  O' Gorman,  Esq.,  was  called  upon  to  report  the  proceed- 
ings of  the  Catholic  Board  since  June  of  the  year  before.  This 
he  accordingly  did  in  considerable  detail. 

When  he  had  concluded, 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  said  that  he  was  directed  by  the  late  general  board 
of  the  Catholics  of  Ireland  to  read  several  resolutions,  which  the  board 
respectfully  recommended  to  the  adoption  of  the  meeting.  The 
board  did  not  attempt  to  dictate  to  the  meeting — it  merely  suggested 
those  resolutions,  eleven  of  which  obtained  its  uuanimous  approba- 
tion ;  and  it  suggested  a  twelfth,  upon  which  there  was,  in  the 
board,  a  division  of  sentiment.  Mr.  O'Connell  then  read  the  eleven 
first  resolutions,  which  were  as  follows  : — 


"  Resolved — '  That  we  do  forthwith  renew  our  earnest  application,  by 
petition  to  the  legislature,  praying  the  total  and  unqualified  repeal  of  the 
Penal  Statutes,  which  infringe  the  sacred  rights  of  religious  freedom. 

"Resolved — '  That  we  consider  ourselves  entitled,  upon  the  broad  principle 
of  right  and  justice,  to  the  full  enjoyment  of  the  constitution,  upon  equal  terms 
with  our  fellow-citizens  of  other  religious  persuasions,  and,  solicitous  for  the 
unrestricted  exertion  of  liberty  of  conscience  to  all  mankind,  we  ask  no  more  for 
ourselves. 

"  Resolved — '  That  we  have  viewed,  with  inexpressible  pleasure  and  admira- 
tion, the  enlightened  exertions  of  our  fellow-citizens  of  other  persuasions  in  our 

behalf that  we  hope  to  merit  their  honourable  confidence,  by  a  perseverance 

in  the  same  candour,  firmness,  and  temperance,  which  have  already  conciliated 
their  esteem ;  and  (although  we  cannot,  in  sincerity  or  honour,  purchase  our 
rights  by  the  sacrifices  of  our  religious  principles,  or  by  the  substitution  of  one 
species  of  humiliating  servitude  for  another)  yet  we  must  cheerfully  tender  to 
their  kind  acceptance  the  only  equivalent  in  our  power — our  warm  afiections 
and  lasting  gratitude — our  oaths  of  allegiance,  our  past  merits  and  forbearance, 
our  present  willingness  to  assist,  whenever  permitted,  in  the  arduous  enterprise 
of  saving  the  sinking  vessel  of  the  state. 

"Resolved — 'That  equal  constitutional  rights,  unconditional,  mistipulated, 
unpurchased  by  dishonour,  are  the  objects  most  dear  to  our  hearts.  These 
objects  consist  with  virtue,  wisdom,  humanity,  unaffected  honour,  and  true 
religion,  and  can  never  be  abandoned  by  men  who  deserve  to  be  free. 

"  Resolved — '  That,  for  the  complete  attainment  of  these,  our  constitutional 
and  salutary  objects,  we  confide  in  our  own  persevering  firmness,  in  the  grow- 
ing liberality  and  wisdom  of  our  fellow-citizens,  and,  above  all,  in  that 
overruling  Providence  which  presides  over  the  destinies  of  nations,  and 
permits  not  the  prolonged  oppression  of  man,  by  his  fellow-creature,  with 
impunity. 

"Resolved — '  That  the  charge  of  preparing  the  said  petitions,  and  of  causing 
them  to  be  duly  presented  without  delay,  be  confided  to  the  individuals  (com- 
posing the  confidence  of  the  Catholics  of  Ireland)  who  lately  constituted  the 
general  board  of  the  Catholics  of  Ireland. 

"Resolved — '  That  the  said  persons  are  so  nominated,  not  to  represent  the 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,   M.P.  379 

people  of  these  realms,  or  any  portion  thereof,  but  merely  for  the  purpose, 
solely  and  exclusively,  already  prescribed,  and  for  no  other  purpose  what- 
soever. 

"Resolved — '  That  the  said  persons  be  requested  to  submit  to  the  Catholics 
of  Ireland,  to  be  assembled  in  aggregate  meeting,  on  tliis  day  fortnight,  drafts 
of  petitions  for  their  adoption. 

"  Resolved — '  That  we  do  strongly  recommend  it  to  the  inhabitants  of  the 
several  counties,  cities,  towns,  and  parishes  of  Ireland,  to  present  separate 
addresses  to  the  Crown,  and  petitions  to  parhament,  praying  the  total  and  un- 
qualified repeal  of  all  those  Penal  Statutes,  which  infringe  the  sacred  rights  of 
private  conscience  in  religious  concerns.' 

"  The  twelfth  (continued  Mr.  O'Connell)  is  a  i-esolution  on  which, 
I  am  sorry  to  say,  there  was  some  difference  of  opinion  in  the  boax'd, 
but  upon  which,  I  am  confident,  there  will  be  entire  unanimity  here. 
It  is  a  vote  of  thanks  to  the  Right  Rev.  Doctor  Milner."     .... 

The  Dublin  Evening  Post,  in  its  report  of  the  proceedings, 
says  that — 

"  When  Mr.  O'Connell  adverted  to  the  revered  name  of  the  persecuted 
Dr.  Miluer,  he  was  interrupted  by  the  loudest  acclamations  we  have 
ever  heard.  AU  voices  were  raised  to  greet  this  favoured  name. 
Clapping  of  hands,  beating  of  feet,  &c.,  &c.,  were  continued  and 
resumed  during  several  minutes,  and  at  three  successive  intervals. 

"  When,  afterwards,  he  came  to  move  the  distinct  resolution,  the 
twelfth  in  order,  viz. : — 

"  Resolved — '  That  the  warm  approbation  and  gratitude  of  the  Catholics  of 
Ireland  be  conveyed  to  the  Right  Rev.  Dr.  Miluer,  for  his  manly,  upright,  and 
conscientious  opposition,  in  conformity  with  the  most  rev.  and  right  rev.  the 
Catholic  prelates  of  Ireland,  to  the  eeclesiastical  regulations  contained  in  the 
bill  lately  submitted  to  parliament,  and  purporting  to  be  a  bill  for  the  further 
relief  of  his  Majesty's  Roman  Catholic  subjects,' 

"  The  same  thunder  of  applause  was  repeated,  but  with  peals  of, 
if  possible,  augmented  force  and  renovated  energy. 

"  The  whole  assembly  rose,  as  if  with  one  impulse.  All  hats  were 
taken  off,  and  each  spectator  waved  his  hat  with  the  loudest  demon- 
strations of  pleasure.  The  ladies  came  forward,  and  by  coui'tesies, 
signified  their  participation  in  the  general  feeling. 

"  In  short,  an  electric  sensation  was  apparently  excited,  springing 
from  the  reverential  sentiment  of  merited  respect  for  the  Irish 
prelates,  and  fo  their  insulted  brother,  the  Right  Rev.  Doctor 
Milner. 


380  MKMOIH    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

"  The  enthusiaiim  subsided  very  slowly,  and  had  not  wholly  disap- 
peared when  the  assembly  broke  up." 

When  Mr.  O'Connell  was  allowed  to  proceed  after  the 
strikinir  demonstration  of  feeling  thus  described  by  the  Eveiiinp 
Post — a  description  strictly  according  to  the  fact,  he  read  the 
remaining  resolutions,  viz. : — 

•*  Resolved — '  That  we  feel  it  necessary  to  repeat  oxir  earnest  exhortation  to  all 
Catholic  freeholders  throughout  Ireland,  to  resrister  their  freeholds,  and  steadily 
to  resist  the  pretensions  of  any  candidates  for  their  votes,  who  shall  have  lent, 
or  are  likely  to  lend,  their  support  to  any  administration  founded  in  intolerance, 
and  hostile  to  the  full  enjoyment  of  religious  freedom  : 

••  Resolved — '  That  the  expenses  unavoidably  attendant  upon  the  conduct  of 
Catholic  i>etitions,  and  the  defence  of  the  invaded  rights  of  petitioning, 
call  for  the  libenil  aid  of  our  fellow-country  men  ;  and  we  confide  in  the  public 
spirit  and  zeal  of  the  Cathohc  body,  throughout  Ireland,  for  ample  pecuniary 
support :"  '■ 

And  moved  that  the  entire  should  be  adopted. 

"  Having  thus  discharged  (said  he,  in  continuation.)  the  duty 
imposed  on  me  by  the  board,  and  having  come  here  determined  to 
address  this  meeting,  I  avail  myself  of  this  opportunity  to  solicit  your 
patience  and  attention.  Let  me,  in  the  fii"st  place,  congratulate  you 
on  the  progress  which  the  principle  of  rehgious  liberty  has  made 
since  you  last  met.  It  has  been  greatly  advanced  by  a  magnificent 
discovery  lately  made  by  the  English  in  ethics,  and  upon  which  I  also 
beg  leave  to  congratulate  you.  It  is  this — several  sagacious  English- 
men have  discovered,  in  the  nineteenth  century,  and  more  than  four 
hundred  years  after  the  propagation  of  science  was  facilitated  by  the 
art  of  printing — several  sagacious  Englishmen  have  made  this  won- 
derful discovery  in  moral  philosophy,  that  a  man  is  not  necessarily  a 
worse  citizen  for  haviug  a  conscience,  and  that  a  conscientious 
adherence  to  a  Christian  i-eligion  is  not  an  offence  deserx-ing  of 
degradation  or  punishment.     (Hear.) 

"  The  operation,  however,  of  this  discovery  had  its  opponents  ; 
like  gravitation  and  the  cow-pock,  it  has  been  opposed,  and,  for  the 
pre^nt,  opposed  with  success  :  but  the  principle  has  not  been  resisted. 
Yes,  our  enemies  themselves  have  been  forced  to  concede  our  right  to 
emancipation.  Duigenan,  and  Xicholl,  and  Scott  are  laughed  at — 
not  listened  to ;  the  principle  is  admitted — the  right  of  hberty  of 
conscience  is  not  controverted — your  emancipation  is  certain — it  is 


DANIEL    o'COSNELL,   ESQ.,  M.P.  381 

now  only  a  question  of  terms — it  only  remains  to  be  seen  whether  we 
shall  be  emancipated  upon  their  terms  or  upon  ours. 

"They  offer  you  emancipation,  as  Catholics,  if  you  will  kindly 
consent,  in  return,  to  become  schismatics.  They  offer  you  liberty,  as 
men,  if  you  agree  to  become  slaves  after  a  new  fashion — that  is,  your 
friends  and  your  enemies  have  declared  that  you  are  entitled  to 
Catholic  emancipation  and  freedom,  upon  the  trifling  terms  of  schism 
and  servitude  I 

"  Generous  enemies ! — bountiful  friends  '.  Yes,  in  their  bounty, 
they  resemble  the  debtor  who  should  address  his  creditor  thus : — '  It 
is  true,  I  owe  you  £100;  I  am  perfectly  well  able  to  pay  you;  but 
what  will  you  give  me,  if  I  hand  you  65.  8d-  in  the  poimd  of  your 
just  debt,  as  a  final  adjustment?'  (Hear,  hear.)  'Let  us  allay  all 
jealousies,'  continues  the  debtor — '  let  us  put  an  end  to  all  animosities 

I  will  »ive  you  one-third  of  what  I  owe  you,  if  you  will  give  me 

forty  shillings  in  the  pound  of  additional  value,  and  a  receipt  in  fall, 
duly  stamped,  into  the  bargain.'     (Laughter.) 

"  But  why  do  I  treat  this  serious  and  melancholy  subject  with 
levity  ?  TVhy  do  I  jest,  when  my  heart  is  sore  and  sad  ?  Because  I 
have  not  patience  at  this  modem  cant  of  securities,  and  vetoes,  and 
arrangements,  and  clauses,  and  commissions.  Securities  against 
what  ?  Not  against  the  irritation  and  dislike  which  may  and  natu- 
rally ought  to  result  from  prolonged  oppression  and  insult.  Securities 
— not  against  the  consequences  of  dissensions,  distrusts,  and  animosi- 
ties. Securities — not  against  foreign  adversaries.  The  securities 
that  are  required  from  us  are  against  the  effects  of  conciKation  and 
kindness — against  the  dangers  to  be  apprehended  from  domestic 
union,  peace,  and  cordiality.  K  they  do  not  emancipate  us — if  they 
leave  us  aliens  and  outlaws  in  our  native  land — if  they  continue  our 
degradation,  and  all  those  grievances  that,  at  present,  set  our  passions 
at  war  with  our  duty ;  then,  they  have  no  pretext  for  asking,  nor  do 
they  require  any  securities ;  but,  should  they  raise  us  to  the  rank  of 
Irishmen — should  they  give  us  an  immediate  and  personal  interest  in 
our  native  land — should  they  share  with  us  the  blessings  of  the  con- 
stitution— should  they  add  to  our  duty  the  full  tide  of  our  interests 
and  affection ;  then — then,  say  they,  securities  will  be  necessary. 
Securities  and  guards  must  be  adopted.  State  bridles  must  be  in- 
vented, and  shackles  and  manacles  must  be  forged,  lest,  in  the 
intoxication  of  new  liberty,  we  should  destroy,  only  because  we  have 
a  greater  interest  to  preserve. 


382  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

"  And  do  they — do  these  security-men  deserve  to  be  reasoned 
with?  I  readily  admit — I  i-eadily  proclaim  Grattan's  purity — his 
integrity — his  patriotism ;  but,  in  his  eagerness  to  obtain  for  us  that 
liberty,  for  which  he  has  so  long  and  so  zealously  contended,  he  has 
overlooked  the  absurdity  which  those  men  fall  into,  who  demand 
securities  against  the  consequences  of  emancipation,  whilst  they  look 
for  no  securities  against  the  effects  of  injustice  and  contumely. 

"  Grattan  has  also  overlooked  the  insult  to  our  understandings 
and  to  our  moral  feelings  which  this  demand  for  securities  inflicts. 
Grattan  is  mistaken  upon  this  topic ;  but  he  is  the  only  man  who  is 
merely  mistaken.  The  cry  for  securities  has  been  raised,  merely  to 
retard  the  progress  of  emancipation.  Canning  affects  to  be  our  friend, 
because,  since  his  conduct  to  his  colleague.  Viscount  Castlereagh,  he 
has  found  it  difficult  to  obtain  a  niche  in  any  administration.  God 
preserve  us  from  the  friendship  of  Mr.  Canning !  I  have  no  apjjre- 
hension  of  Mr.  Canning's  enmity  :  he  was  our  avowed  enemy  ;  that 
is,  he  always  voted  against  us,  from  the  moment  he  got  pension  or 
place  under  Pitt,  to  the  time  when  he  was  dismissed  from  office,  and 
rendered  hopeless  of  regaining  it.  And,  as  to  Lord  Castlereagh,  rely 
on  it,  that,  though  he  may  consent  to  change  one  kind  of  degradation 
for  another,  he  never  will  consent  to  your  attaining  3'our  freedom : 
and  was  it  to  obtain  the  vote  of  Lord  Castlereagh  that  Grattan  gave 
up  our  honour  and  our  religion  ?  Does  Grattan  forget — does  he 
forgive  the  artificer  of  the  union,  or  the  means  by  which  it  was 
achieved  ?  Does  not  Grattan  know  that  Lord  Castlereagh  first  dyed 
his  country  in  blood,  and  then  sold  her. 

"  But,  I  repeat  it,  I  have  not  patience,  common  patience  with 
those  men  who  cry  out  for  securities,  and  will  not  see  that  they  would 
obtain  real  security  from  the  generous  concession  of  plain  right — 
from  conciliation  and  kindness  ;  all  reasoning,  all  experience  proves 
that  justice  to  the  Catholics  ought  to  be,  and  has  been,  in  the  moments 
of  distress  and  peril,  the  first  and  best  security  to  the  state.  I  will 
not  stoop  to  argue  the  theory  with  any  man.  I  will,  not  condescend 
to  enter  into  an  abstract  reasoning  to  pi'ove  that  safety  to  a  govern- 
ment ought  to  result  from  justice  and  kindness  to  the  people,  but  I 
will  point  out  the  evidence  of  facts  which  demonstrate,  that  concession 
to  the  Irish  Catholics  has  in  itself  been  resorted  to,  and  produced 
security  to  our  government — that  they  have  considered  and  found  it 
to  be  a  security  in  itself — a  safeguard  against  the  greatest  evils  and 
calamities,  and  not  a  cause  of  danger  or  apprehension. 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  383 

"  Ireland,  in  the  connection  with  England,  has  but  too  constantly 
shared  the  fate  of  the  prodigal's  dog — I  mean  no  personal  allusion — 
(a  laugh) — she  has  been  kicked  in  the  insolence  of  prosperity,  and 
she  has  borne  all  the  famine  and  distress  of  adversity.  Ireland  has 
done  more — she  has  aiforded  an  abundant  source  of  safety  and  security 
to  England  in  the  midst  of  every  adversity  ;  and  at  the  hour  of  her 
calamity,  England  has  had  only  to  turn  to  Ireland  with  the  offer  of 
friendship  and  cordiality,  and  she  has  been  rewarded  by  our  cordial 
and  unremitting  succour. 

"  Trace  the  history  of  the  penal  laws  in  their  leading  features,  and 
you  will  see  the  truth  of  my  assertion.  The  capitulation  of  Limerick 
was  signed  on  the  3rd  October,  1691.  Our  ancestors,  by  that  treaty, 
stipulated  for,  and  were  promised  the  perfect  freedom  of  their  reli- 
gion, and  that  no  other  oath  should  be  imposed  on  Catholics,  save 
the  oath  of  allegiance.  The  Irish  performed  the  entire  of  that  treaty 
on  their  part :  it  remains  unperformed,  as  it  certainly  is  of  force,  in 
point  of  justice,  to  this  hour,  on  the  pai't  of  the  English.  Even  in 
the  reign  of  William,  it  was  violrited  by  that  prince,  whose  generals 
and  judges  signed  that  treaty — by  that  prince,  who  himself  confirmed 
and  enrolled  it. 

"  But  he  was  the  same  prince  that  signed  the  order  for  the  horrible, 
cold-blooded  assassination  and  massacre  of  the  unfortunate  Mac- 
donalds,  of  Glencoe ;  and  if  his  violation  of  the  Limerick  treaty  was 
confined  to  some  of  the  articles,  it  was  only  because  the  alteration  in 
the  succession,  and  the  extreme  pressure  of  foreign  afiaii-s,  did  not 
render  it  prudent  nor  convenient  to  ofier  further  injury  and  injustice 
to  the  Irish  Catholics. 

"  But  the  case  was  altered  in  the  next  reign.  The  power  and  the 
glory,  which  England  acquired  by  her  achievements,  under  Marl- 
borough— the  internal  strength,  arising  from  the  possession  of  liberty, 
enabled  her  to  treat  Ireland  at  her  caprice,  and  she  a<;cordingly 
poured  the  full  vial  of  her  hatred  upon  the  unfortunate  Catholics  of 
Ireland.  England  was  strong  and  proud,  and,  therefore,  unjust.  The 
treaty  of  Limei'ick  was  trampled  under  foot — justice,  and  humanity, 
and  conscience  were  trodden  to  the  earth,  and  a  code  of  laws  inflicted 
on  the  Irish  Catholics,  which,  Montesquieu  has  well  said,  ought  to 
have  been  wi-itten  in  blood,  and  of  which  you  still  feel  the  emaciating 
cruelty — a  code  of  laws  which  still  leaves  you  aliens  in  the  land  of 
your  ancestors.  Aliens ! — did  I  say  ?  Alas  !  you  have  not  the  pri- 
vileges of  alienage ;  for  the  alien  can  insist  upon  having  six  of  his 


384  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

jury  of  his  own  nation,  whilst  you  may  have  twelve  Orangemen  on 
yours.     (Hear,  hear.) 

"  But  to  return  to  our  own  history.  The  reigns  of  the  First  and  of 
the  Second  George  passed  away  ;  England  continued  strong  ;  she 
persevered  in  oppression  and  injustice  ;  she  was  powerful  and  re- 
spected ;  she,  therefore,  disregarded  the  sufferings  of  the  Irish,  and 
increased  their  chains.  The  Catholics  once  had  the  presumption  to 
draw  up  a  petition ;  it  was  presented  to  Primate  Boulter,  then 
governing  Ireland.  He  not  only  rejected  it  with  scorn  and  without 
a  reply,  but  treated  the  insolence  of  daring  to  complain  as  a  crime 
and  punished  it  as  an  offence,  by  recommending  and  procuring  still 
more  severe  laws  against  the  papists,  and  the  more  active  execution 
of  the  former  statutes. 

"But  a  new  era  advanced ;  the  war  which  George  the  Second 
waged  on  account  of  Hanover  and  America,  exhausted  the  resources, 
and  lessened,  while  it  displayed,  the  strength  of  England.  In  the 
mean  time  the  Duke  of  Bedford  was  Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ireland. 
The  ascendancy  mob  of  Dublin,  headed  by  a  Lucas,  insulted  the 
Lord  Lieutenant  with  impunity,  and  threatened  the  parliament. 
All  was  riot  and  confusion  within,  whilst  France  had  prepared 
an  army  and  a  fleet  for  the  invasion  of  Ireland.  Serious  danger 
menaced  England.  The  very  connection  between  the  countries  was 
in  danger.  The  Catholics  were,  for  the  first  time,  thought  of  with 
favour.  They  were  encouraged  to  address  the  Lord  Lieutenant, 
and,  for  the  first  time,  their  address  received  the  courtesy  of  a  reply. 
By  this  slight  civility  (the  more  welcome  for  its  novelty)  the  wai-m 
hearts  and  ready  hands  of  the  Irish  Catholics  were  purchased. 
The  foreign  foe  was  deterred  from  attempting  to  invade  a  country 
where  he  could  no  longer  have  found  a  friend  ;  the  domestic  in- 
surgents were  awed  into  silence  ;  the  Catholics  and  the  government, 
simply  by  their  combination,  saved  the  state  from  its  perils  ;  and 
thus  did  the  Catholics,  in  a  period  of  danger,  and  upon  the  very 
first  application,  and  in  return  for  no  more  than  kind  words,  give, 
what  we  want  to  give,  security  to  the  empire. 

"From  the  year  1759,  to  the  American  war,  England  enjoyed 
strength  and  peace ;  the  Catholics  were  forgotten,  or  recollected 
only  for  the  purposes  of  oppression.  England,  in  her  strength  and 
her  insolence,  oppressed  America ;  she  persevered  in  an  obstinate 
and  absurd  course  of  vexation,  until  America  revolted,  flew  to  arras, 
conquered,  and  established  her  independence  and  her  liberty. 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  385 

"  Tliis  brings  us  to  the  second  stage  of  modern  Catholic  history ; 
for  England,  having  been  worsted  in  more  than  one  battle  in  Ame- 
rica, and  having  gained  victories  more  fatal  than  many  defeats, 
America,  aided  by  France,  having  proclaimed  independence,  the 
English  period  for  liberality  and  justice  arrived,  for  she  was  in 
distress  and  difficulty.  Distracted  at  home — baffled  and  despised 
abroad,  she  was  compelled  to  look  to  Irish  resources,  and  to  seek  for 
security  in  Ireland;  accordingly,  in  the  year  1778,  our  Emancipation 
commenced ;  the  Catholics  were  hired  into  the  active  service  of  the 
state  by  an  easy  gratuity  of  a  small  share  of  their  rights  as  human 
beings,  and  they  in  return  gave,  what  we  now  desire  to  give,  security 
to  the  empire. 

"  The  pressure  of  foreign  evils,  however,  returned  ;  Spain  and  Hol- 
land joined  with  France  and  America ;  success  in  her  contest  with  the 
Colonies  became  daily  more  hopeless.  The  combined  fleets  swept  the 
ocean  ;  the  English  channel  saw  their  superiority ;  the  English  fleet 
abandoned,  for  a  while,  the  dominion  of  the  sea  ;  the  national  debt 
terrified  and  impoverished  the  country ;  distress  and  difficulty 
pressed  on  every  side,  and,  accordingly,  we  arrived  at  the  second 
stage  of  Catholic  Emancipation:  for,  in  1782,  at  such  a  period  as  I 
have  described,  a  second  statute  was  passed,  enlarging  the  privileges 
of  the  Catholics,  and  producing,  in  their  gratitude  and  zeal,  that 
security  which  we  now  tender  to  the  sinking  vessel  of  the  state. 

"  From  1782  to  1792,  was  a  period  of  tranquillity  ;  the  expenses 
of  the  government  were  diminished,  and  her  commerce  greatly 
increased.  The  loss  of  America,  instead  of  being  an  evil,  became 
an  advantage  to  trade  as  well  as  to  liberty.  England  again  flourished, 
and  again  forgot  us. 

"  In  1792,  the  Catholics  urged  their  claims,  as  they  had  more 
than  once  done  before.  But  the  era  was  inauspicious  to  them, 
for  England  was  in  prosperity.  On  the  Continent,  the  confederation 
of  German  princes  and  the  assemblage  of  the  French  princes,  with 
their  royalist  followers,  the  treaty  of  Pilnitz,  and  the  army  of  the 
King  of  Prussia,  gave  hope  of  crushing  and  extinguishing  France 
and  her  liberties  for  ever.  At  that  moment  the  Catholic  petition 
was  brought  before  parliament ;  it  was  not  even  suffered,  according 
to  the  course  of  ordinary  courtesy,  to  lie  on  the  table ;  it  was 
rejected  with  indignation  and  with  contempt.  The  head  of  the 
LaTouche  family,  which  has  since  pi-odaced  so  many  first-rate 
Irishmen,  then  retained  that  Huguenot  hatred  for  Catholics  which 

2  c 


386  MEMOIR     AND    SPEECHES    OF 

is  still  cherished  by  Saurin,  the  Attorney  General  for  Ireland. 
La  Touche  proposed  that  the  petition  should  be  rejected,  and  it  was 
rejected  by  a  majority  of  200  to  only  13. 

"  Fortune,  however,  changed.  The  invasion  of  the  Prussians 
was  unsuccessful ;  the  French  people  worshipping  the  name,  as  if  it 
were  the  reality  of  liberty,  chased  the  Duke  of  Brunswick  from  their 
soil ;  the  King  of  Prussia,  in  the  Luttrel  style,  sold  the  pass  ;  the 
German  princes  were  confounded,  and  the  French  princes  scattered ; 
Dumourier  gained  the  battle  of  Jamappe,  and  conquered  the  Aus- 
trian Netherlands  ;  the  old  governments  of  Europe  were  struck 
with  consternation  and  dismay,  and  we  arrived  at  the  fourth,  and 
hitherto  the  last  stage  of  Emancipation  ;  for,  after  those  events, 
in  1793,  was  passed  that  act  which  gave  us  many  valuable  political 
rights — many  important  privileges. 

"  The  parliament — the  same  men  who,  in  1792,  would  not  suffer 
our  petition  to  lie  on  the  table — the  men  who,  in  1792,  treated  us 
with  contempt,  in  the  short  space  of  a  few  months,  granted  us  the 
elective  franchise.  In  1792,  we  were  despised  and  rejected  ;  in 
1793,  we  were  flattered  and  favoured.  The  reason  was_obvious  ;  in 
the  year  1792,  England  was  safe;  in  1793,  she  wanted  security, 
and  security  she  found  in  the  emancipation  of  the  Catholics,  partial 
though  it  was  and  limited.  The  spirit  of  republican  phrensy  was 
abroad ;  the  enthusiasm  for  liberty,  even  to  madness,  pervaded  the 
public  mind.  The  Presbyterians  and  Dissenters  of  the  North  of 
Ireland  were  strongly  infected  with  that  mania  ;  ^  and  had  not 
England  wisely  and  prudently  bought  all  the  Catholic  nobility  and 
gentry,  and  the  far  greater  part  of  the  Catholic  people  out  of  the 
market  of  republicanism,  that  which  fortunately  was  but»a  rebellion, 
would,  most  assuredly,  have  been  revolution.  The  Presbyterians 
and  Catholics  would  have  united,  and,  after  wading  through  the 
bloody  delirium  of  a  sanguinary  revolution,  we  should  now,  in  all 
likelihood,  have  some  military  adventurer  seated  on  the  throne  of  our 
legitimate  sovereign. 

"  But,  I  repeat  it,  England  judged  better  ;  she  was  just  and  kind, 
and  therefore  has  she  been  preserved.  She  sought  for  security 
where  alone  it  could  be  found,  and  she  obtained  it. 

"  Thus,  in  1  759,  England  wanted  security  against  the  turbulence  of 
her  ascendancy  faction  in  Ireland,  and  against  the  fleet  and  arms  of 
France  ;  she  was  civil  and  courteous  to  the  Catholics,  and  the  re- 
quisite security  was  the  result. 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  »^8T 

"  Thus,  in  1778,  England  wanted  security  against  the  etlects  of  hev 
own  misconduct  and  misfortunes  in  America  ;  she  granted  some  rights 
of  property  to  the  Irish  Catholics,  and  the  wanted  security  followed. 

"  Thus,  in  1782,  England  wanted  security  against  the  prodigality 
and  profligacy  of  her  administration — against  the  combined  navies  of 
France,  Spain,  and  Holland ;  she  conceded  some  further  advantages 
to  the  Catholics,  and  she  became  safe  and  secure. 

"  Thus,  in  1795,  England  wanted  security  against  the  probable 
consequences  of  the  disasters  and  treachery  of  the  Prussians — the 
defeat  of  the  Austrians,  and  especially  against  the  revolutionary 
epidemic  distemper  which  threatened  the  vitals  of  the  constitution  ; 
she  conferred  on  the  Catholics  some  portion  of  political  freedom,  and 
the  Catholics  have  recompensed  her,  by  affording  her  subsequent 
security. 

"And  thus  has  emancipation  been  in  all  its  stages  the  effect  of  the 
wants  of  England,  but,  at  the  same  time,  her  resource  in  those  wants. 
In  her  weakness  and  decay,  Emancipation  has  given  her  health  and 
strength  ;  it  was  always  hitherto  a  remedy,  and  not  in  itself  a 
disease  ;  it  was,  in  short,  her  best  protection  and  security.  Away, 
then,  with  those  idle,  those  absurd  demands  for  control  and  dominion 
over  our  mode  of  faith. 

"  Let  Grattan  learn  the  sentiments  of  the  Irish  people  ;  let  him 
know  that  we  are  ready  to  give  the  security  of  our  properties  and 
our  lives  to  the  state  ;  but,  we  will  not,  we  cannot,  grant  away  any 
part  of  our  religion.  Before  the  union  no  vetoes,  no  arrangements, 
no  inquisitions  over  our  prelates  were  required.  If  our  Protestant 
fellow-countrymen  did  not  ask  them,  why  should  the  English  suppose 
we  can  grant  them  to  their  stupid  caprice  ?  But  we  are  ready  to 
give  them  security  ;  we  are  ready  to  secure  them  from  foreign  foes, 
and  against  the  possibility  of  domestic  dissension. 

Yes,  the  hour  of  your  emancipation  is  at  hand ;  you  will, 
you  must  be  emancipated;  not  by  the  operation  of  any  force  or 
violence,  which  are  unnecessary,  and  would  be  illegal  on  your  part, 
but  by  the  repetition  of  your  constitutional  demands  by  petition,  and 
still  more  by  the  pressure  of  circumstances,  and  the  great  progress 
of  events.  Yes,  your  emancipation  is  certain,  because  England 
wants  the  asssistance  of  all  her  people.  The  dream  of  delivering 
the  Continent  from  the  dominion  of  Bonaparte  has  vanished.  The 
idle  romance  of  German  liberty — who  ever  heard  of  German  liberty! 
is  now  a  cheerless  vision.     The  allied  Russian  and  Prussian  ai-mies 


3S8  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

may,  perhaps,  escape,  but  they  have  little  prospect  of  victory.  The 
Americans  have  avenged  our  outrages  on  their  seamen,  by  quenching 
the  meteor  blaze  of  the  British  naval  flag.  The  war  with  the  world 
— England,  alone,  against  the  world,  is  in  progress.  We  shall  owe  to 
her  good  sense,  what  ought  to  be  conceded  by  her  generosity  ;  she 
cannot  proceed  without  our  aid  ;  she  knows  she  can  command  that 
aid  if  she  will  but  be  just ;  she  can,  for  liberty,  to  which  we  are  of 
right  entitled,  command  the  affections  and  the  energies  of  the  bravest 
and  the  finest  people  in  the  world ! 

"  Recollect,  too,  that  the  financial  distress  of  England  accumulates. 
She  owes,  including  the  Irish  debt,  near  a  million  of  millions.  Who 
is  there  so  extravagant  as  to  suppose,  but  that  there  must  arrive  a 
period  at  which  it  will  become  impossible  to  borrow  money,  or  to  pay 
more  interest  ?  Our  Irish  debt  has  already  exceeded,  by  nearly  two- 
thirds,  our  means.  We  spend  sixteen  millions  annually,  and  we 
collect,  in  revenue,  about  five  millions.  Our  bank  puts  a  paltry 
impression  on  three  pennyworth  of  silver,  and  calls  it  tenpence.  In 
short,  with  taxes  increasing,  debts  accumulating,  revenue  diminishing, 
trade  expiring,  paper  currency  depreciating — who  is  so  very  blind 
as  not  to  perceive,  that  England  does,  and  must  require,  the  consoli- 
dation of  all  her  people  in  one  common  cause,  and  in  one  common 
interest  ? 

"  The  plain  path  to  safety — to  security — ^lies  before  her.  Let 
Irishmen  be  restored  to  their  inherent  rights,  and  she  may  laugh  to 
scorn  the  shock  of  every  tempest ;  the  arrangements  which  the 
abolition  of  the  national  debt  may  require  will  then  be  effectuated, 
without  convulsion  or  disturbance ;  and  no  foreign  foe  will  dare  to 
pollute  the  land  of  freemen  and  of  brothers.     (Hear,  hear.) 

"  They  have,  however,  struck  out  another  resource  in  England : 
they  have  resolved,  it  is  said,  to  resort  to  the  protection  of  Orange 
Lodges.  That  system  which  has  been  declared  by  judges  from  the 
bench  to  be  illegal  and  criminal,  and  found  by  the  experience  of  the 
people  to  be  bigoted  and  bloody — the  Orange  system,  which  has 
marked  its  progress  in  blood,  in  murder,  and  in  massacre — the  Orange 
system,  which  has  desolated  Ireland,  and  would  have  converted  her 
into  a  solitude,  but  for  the  interposing  hand  of  Cornwallis — the 
Orange  system,  with  all  its  sanguinary  horrors,  is,  they  say,  to  be 
adopted  in  England ! 

'*  Its  prominent  patrons,  we  are  told,  is  Lord  Kenyon  or  Lord 
Yarmouth ;  the  first  an  insane  religionist  of  the  Welsh  Jumper  sect. 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  389 

who,  bounding  in  the  air,  imagines  he  can  laj  hold  of  a  limb  of  the 
Deity,  like  Macbeth,  snatching  at  the  aii'-drawn  dagger  of  his  fancy  ! 
He  would  be  simply  ridiculous,  but  for  the  mischievous  malignity  of 
his  holy  piety,  which  desires  to  convert  papists  from  their  errors, 
thi'ough  the  instrumentality  of  daggers  of  steel.  Lord  Kenyon  may 
enjoy  his  ample  sinecures  as  he  pleases,  but  his  folly  should  not  goad 
to  madness  the  people  of  Ireland. 

"  As  to  Lord  Yarmouth,  I  need  not,  indeed  I  could  not,  describe 
him ;  and  if  I  could,  I  would  not  disgust  myself  with  the  description  ; 
but  if  Lord  Kenyon  or  Lord  Yarmouth  have  organized  the  Orange 
system,  I  boldly  proclaim  that  he  must  have  been  bribed  by  the  com- 
mon enemy.  Bigotry  is  not  a  gratuitous  propensity.  Giffard  gets 
money  for  his  calumnies  and  impudence  ;  so  does  Duigenan.  The 
English  Orange  patrons  must  be  bribed  by  France ;  let  them  appeal 
to  their  private  lives  to  repel  my  accusation.  Can  that  man  repel  it, 
whose  life  is  devoted  to  the  accumulation  of  wealth  to  be  added  to 
wealth,  already  excessive  and  enormous? — who  never  was  suspected 
of  principle  or  honour  ? — whose  finest  feelings  were  always  at  market 
for  money  ? — who  was  ready  to  wed  disgrace  with  a  rich  dowiy,  and 
would  have  espoused  infamy  with  a  large  portion?  If  such  a  wretch 
lives,  let  him  become  the  leader  of  the  Orange  banditti.  The  patron 
is  worthy  of  the  institution — the  institution  is  suited  to  the  patron ! 

"  You  know  iuU  well  that  I  do  not  exaggerate  the  hori-ors  which 
the  Orange  system  has  produced,  and  must  produce,  if  revived  from 
authority,  in  this  country.  I  have,  in  some  of  the  hireling  prints  of 
London,  read,  under  the  guise  of  opposing  the  adoption  of  the  Orange 
system,  the  most  unfounded  praises  of  the  conduct  of  the  Irish 
Orangemen.  They  were  called  loyal,  and  worthy,  and  constitutional. 
Let  me  hold  them  up  in  their  true  light.  Tlie  first  authentic  fact  in 
their  history  occurs  in  1795.  It  is  to  be  found  in  the  address  of 
Lord  Gosford,  to  a  meeting  of  the  magistrates  of  the  county  of 
Armagh,  convened  by  his  lordship,  as  governor  of  that  county,  on 
the  28th  of  December,  1795.  Allow  me  to  read  the  following  pas- 
sage fi-om  that  address  : — 

"  '  Gentlemen — Having  requested  your  attendance  here  this  day,  it  becomes 
my  duty  to  state  the  grounds  upon  which  I  thought  it  advisable  to  propose 
tills  meeting ;  and  at  the  same  time  to  submit  to  your  consideration  a  plan 
which  occurs  to  me  as  most  likely  to  check  the  enormities  that  have  already 
brought  disgrace  upon  this  country,  and  may  soon  reduce  it  into  deep 
distress. 


390  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

"'  It  is  no  secret  that  a  persecution,  accompanied  with  all  the  circumstances 
of  ferocious  cruelty,  which  have  in  all  ages  distinguished  that  dreadful 
calamity,  is  now  raging  in  this  country.  Neither  age  nor  sex,  nor  even 
acknowledged  innocence,  as  to  any  guilt  in  the  late  disturbances,  is  sufficient  to 
excite  mercy,  much  less  to  afford  protection. 

"  '  The  only  crime  which  the  wretched  objects  of  this  ruthless  persecution 
are  charged  with,  is  a  crime,  indeed,  of  easy  proof;  it  is  simply  a  profession  of 
tlie  Roman  Catholic  faith,  or  an  intimate  connection  with  a  person  professing 
this  faith.  A  lawless  banditti  have  constituted  themselves  judges  of  this  new 
species  of  delinquency,  and  the  sentence  they  have  denounced  is  equally 
concise  and  terrible.  It  is  nothing  less  than  a  confiscation  of  all  property,  and 
an  immediate  banishment.  It  would  be  extremely  painful,  and  surely 
unnecessary,  to  detail  the  horrors  that  are  attendant  on  the  execution  of  so 
rude  and  tremendous  a  proscription— one  that  certainly  exceeds  in  the  compa- 
rative number  of  those  it  consigns  to  ruin  and  misery,  every  example  that 
ancient  and  modern  history  can  supply ;  for  where  have  we  heard,  or  in  what 
story  of  human  cruelties  have  we  read,  of  half  the  inhabitants  of  a  populous 
country  deprived,  at  one  blow,  of  the  means  as  well  as  the  fruits  of  their 
industry,  and  driven,  in  the  midst  of  an  inclement  season,  to  seek  a  shelter  for 
themselves,  and  their  helpless  families,  where  chance  may  guide  them  ? 

' '  '  This  is  no  exaggerated  picture  of  the  horrid  scenes  that  are  now  acting  in 
this  country.' 


"  Here  is  the  first  fiict  in  the  history  of  the  Orangemen.  They 
commenced  their  course  by  a  persecution  with  every  cii'cumstance 
of  ferocious  cruehy.  This  hiwless  banditti,  as  Lord  Gosford  called 
them,  showed  no  mercy  to  age,  nor  sex,  nor  acknowledged  innocence. 
And  this  is  not  the  testimony  of  a  man  favourable  to  the  rights  of 
those  persecuted  Catholics ;  he  avows  his  intolerance  in  the  very 
address  of  which  I  have  read  you  a  part ;  and  though  shocked  at 
these  Orange  enormities,  he  still  exults  in  his  hostility  to  emanci- 
pation. 

"  After  this  damning  fact  from  the  early  history  of  the  Orange- 
men, who  can  think  with  patience  on  the  revival  of  extension  of  this 
murderous  association  ?  It  is  not,  it  ought  not,  it  cannot  be  endured, 
that  such  an  association  should  be  restored  to  its  power  of  mischief 
by  abandoned  and  unprincipled  courtiers.  But  I  have  got  in  my 
possession  a  document  which  demonstrates  the  vulgar  and  lowly 
origin,  as  well  as  the  traitorous  and  profligate  purpose  of  this  Orange 
society.  It  has  been  repeatedly  sworn  to  in  judicial  proceedings, 
that  the  original  oath  of  an  Orangeman  was  an  oath  to  exterminate  the 
Catholics.  In  some  years  after  the  society  was  formed,  men  of  a 
higher  class  of  society  became  members  of  it,  and,  being  too  well 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,     ESQ.,    M.P.  391 

educated  to  endure  the  plain  declaration  to  exterminate,  they  changed 
the  form  of  the  oath  to  its  present  shape,  but  carefully  retained  all 
the  persecuting  spirit  of  the  Armagh  exterminators.  The  document 
I  allude  to,  was  printed  for  the  use  of  the  Orange  lodges  ;  it  was 
never  intended  for  any  eye  but  that  of  the  initiated,  and  I  owe  it  to 
something  better  than  chance  that  I  got  a  copy  of  it ;  it  was  printed 
by  "William  M'Kenzie,  printer  to  the  Grand  Orange  Lodge,  in  1810, 
and  is  entitled  '  Rules  and  Regulations  for  the  use  of  all  Orange 
Societies,  revised  and  corrected  by  a  Committee  of  the  Grand  Orange 
Lodge  of  Ireland,  and  adopted  by  the  Grand  Orange  Lodge,  January 
10th,  1810.'  I  can  demonstrate  from  this  document  that  the 
Orange  is  a  vulgar,  a  profligate,  and  a  treasonable  association.  To 
prove  it  treasonable,  I  read  the  following,  which  is  given  as  the  first 
of  their  secret  articles : — '  That  we  will  bear  true  allegiance  to  his 
Majesty,  his  heirs  and  successors,  so  long  as  he  or  they  support  the 
Protestant  ascendancy.'  (Hear,  hear.)  The  meaning  is  obvious,  the 
Orangeman  will  be  loyal  just  so  long  as  he  pleases.  The  traitor  puts 
a  limit  to  his  allegiance,  suited  to  what  he  shall  fancy  to  be  meant  by 
the  words  '  Protestant  Ascendancy.'  If  the  legislature  presumes  to 
alter  the  law  for  the  Irish  Catholics  as  it  did  for  the  Hanoverian 
Catholics,  then  is  the  Orangeman  clearly  discharged  from  his  allegi- 
ance, and  allowed,  at  the  first  convenient  opportunity,  to  raise  a  civil 
war;  and  this  is  what  is  called  a  loyal  association.  (Hear,  hear.) 
Oh !  how  ditferent  from  the  unconditional,  the  ample,  the  conscien- 
tious oath  of  allegiance  of  the  Irish  Catholic.  I  pass  over  the 
second  secret  article,  as  it  contains  nothing  worthy  of  observation  ; 
but  from  the  third  I  shall  at  once  demonstrate  what  pitiful  and 
vulgar  dogs  the  original  Orangemen  were.  Mark  the  third  secret 
article,  I  pray  you — 'That  we  will  not  see  a  brother  offended  for 
sixpence  or  one  shilling,  (A  laugh,)  or  more  if  convenient,  (A  laugh,) 
which  must  be  returned  next  meeting  if  possible.'  (Much  laughter.) 
Such  is  the  third  of  the  secret  Orange  articles.  I  presume  even 
Lonl  Yarmouth  will  go  with  them  the  full  length  of  their  liberality 
of  sixpence  or  one  shilling,  but  further  his  convenience  may  prevent 
him.  The  fourth  secret  article  is  quite  characteristic — '  That  we 
must  not  give  the  first  assault  to  any  person  whatsoever,  that  may 
bring  a  brother  into  trouble'  (Laughter.)  You  perceive  the  limita- 
tion. They  are  entitled  to  give  the  first  assault  in  all  cases,  but  that 
in  which  it  may  not  be  quite  prudent ;  they  are  restricted  from  com- 
mencing their  career  of  aggression,  unless  they  are,  I  presume,  ten 


392  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

to  one — unless  they  are  armed  and  the  Catholics  disarmed — unless 
their  superiority  in  numbers  and  preparation  is  marked  and  manifest. 
See  the  natural  alliance  of  cowardice  with  cruelty.  They  are  ready 
to  assault  you,  when  no  brother  of  theirs  can  be  injured  ;  but  if  there 
be  danger  of  injury  to  one  of  their  brotherhood,  they  are  bound  to 
restrain,  for  that  time,  their  hatred  of  the  Catholics,  and  to  allow 
them  to  pass  unattacked.  This  fourth  article  proves,  better  than  a 
volume,  the  aggressive  spirit  of  the  institution,  and  accounts  for 
many  a  riot,  and  many  a  recent  murder.  (Hear,  hear.)  The  fifth 
secret  article  exhibits  the  rule  of  Orangemen,  with  respect  to 
robbery.  '  5th.  We  are  not  to  carry  away  money,  goods,  or  anything, 
from  any  person  whatever,  except  arms  and  ammunition,  and  those 
only  from  an  enemy.'  The  rule  allows  them  to  commit  felony  to  this 
extent — namely,  the  arms  and  ammunition  of  any  Catholic,  or 
enemy  ;  and  I  have  heard  of  a  Catholic  who  was  disarmed  of  some 
excellent  silver  spoons,  and  a  silver  cup,  by  a  detachment  of  this 
banditti.  Yes,  Lord  Gosford  was  right,  when  he  called  them  a 
lawless  banditti ;  for  here  is  such  a  regulation  as  could  be  framed 
only  for  those  whose  object  was  plunder — whose  means  were  murder. 
The  sixth  and  seventh  secret  articles  relate  to  the  attendance  and 
enrolling  of  members  ;  but  the  eighth  is  of  great  importance — it  is 
this  :  '  8th  secret  article. — An  Orangeman  is  to  keep  a  brother's 
secrets  as  his  own,  unless  in  case  of  murder,  treason,  and  perjury,  and 
that  of  his  own  free  will.'  See  what  an  abundant  crop  of  crimes  the 
Orangeman  is  bound  to  conceal  for  his  brother  Orangeman.  Killing 
a  papist  may,  in  his  eyes,  be  no  murder,  and  he  might  be  bound  to 
conceal  that ;  but  he  is  certainly  bound  to  conceal  all  cases  of  riot, 
maiming,  wounding,  stabbing,  theft,  robbing,  rape,  house-breaking, 
house-burning,  and  every  other  human  villainy,  save  murder, 
treason,  and  perjury.  These  are  the  good,  the  faithful,  the  loyal 
subjects.  They  may,  without  provocation  or  excuse,  attack  and 
assault — give  the  first  assault,  mind,  when  they  are  certain  no  brother 
can  be  brought  to  ti'ouble.  They  may  feloniously  and  burglariously 
break  into  dwellings,  and  steal,  take,  and  carry  away  whatever  they 
will  please  to  call  arms  and  ammunition.  And,  if  the  loyalty  of  a 
brother  tempts  him  to  go  a  little  further,  and  to  plunder  any  other 
articles,  or  to  burn  the  house,  or  to  violate  female  honour,  his 
brother  spectators  of  his  crime  are  bound  by  their  oaths  to  screen  it 
for  ever  from  detection  and  justice.  (Hear,  hear.)  I  know  some 
men  of  better  minds   have   been,    in  their   horror   of  revolutionary 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  393 

fury,  seduced  into  these  lodges,  or  have  unthinkingly  become  mem- 
bers of  them ;  but  the  spirit,  the  object,  and  the  consequences 
of  this  murderous  and  plundering  association,  are  not  the  lesa 
manifest. 

"  I  do  not  calumniate  them  ;  for  I  prove  the  history  of  their  foun- 
dation and  origin  by  the  unimpeachable  testimony  of  Viscount  Gos- 
ford,  and  I  prove  their  principles  by  their  own  secret  articles,  the 
genuineness  of  which  no  Orangeman  can  or  will  deny.  If  it  were 
denied,  I  have  the  means  of  proving  it  beyond  a  doubt.  And  when 
such  principles  are  avowed,  when  so  much  is  acknowledged  and 
printed,  oh,  it  requires  but  little  knowledge  of  human  nature  to 
ascertain  the  enormities  which  must  appear  in  the  practice  of  those 
who  have  confessed  so  much  of  the  criminal  nature  of  their  principles. 
There  is,  however,  one  consolation.  It  is  to  be  found  in  their 
ninth  secret  article — 'No  Roman  Catholic  can  be  admitted  on 
any  account.'  I  thank  them  for  it,  I  rejoice  at  it ;  no  Roman 
Catholic  deserves  to  be  admitted  ;  no  Roman  Catholic  would  desire 
to  belong  to  a  society  permitting  aggression  and  violence,  when  safe 
and  prudent,  permitting  robbery  to  a  certain  extent,  and  authorizing 
treason  upon  a  given  contingency.  (Hear,  hear.)  And  now  let  me 
ask,  what  safety,  what  security  can  the  minions  of  the  court  promise 
to  themselves  from  the  encouragement  of  this  association?  They  do 
want  security,  and  from  the  Catholics  they  can  readily  have  it ;  and 
you,  my  friends,  may  want  security,  not  from  the  open  attacks  of  the 
Orangemen — for  against  those  the  law  and  your  own  courage  will 
protect  you  ;  but  of  their  secret  machinations  you  ought  to  be  warned. 
They  will  endeavour,  nay,  I  am  most  credibly  assured,  that  at  this 
moment  their  secret  emissaries  are  endeavouring  to  seduce  you  into 
acts  of  sedition  and  treason,  that  they  may  betray  and  destroy  you. 
Recollect  what  happened  little  more  than  twelve  months  ago,  when 
the  board  detected  and  exposed  a  similar  delusion  in  Dublin.  Recol- 
lect the  unpunished  conspiracy  which  Avas  discovered  at  Limerick ; 
unpunished  and  unprosecuted  was  the  author.  Recollect  the  Mayor's 
Constable  of  Kilkenny,  and  he  is  still  in  office,  though  he  administered 
an  oath  of  secrecy,  and  gave  money  to  his  spy  to  treat  the  country 
people  to  liquor  and  seduce  them  to  treason.  I  do  most  earnestly 
conjure  you  to  be  on  your  guard,  no  matter  in  what  shape  any  man 
may  approach  who  suggests  disloyalty  to  you — no  matter  of  what 
religion   he   may  affect   to  be — no   matter   what  compassion   he  may 


394  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

express  for  your  suiferings,  what  promises  he  may  make ;  believe  me, 
that  any  man  who  may  attempt  to  seduce  you  into  any  secret  associa- 
tion or  combination  whatsoever,  that  suggests  to  you  any  violation  of 
the  law  whatsoever,  that  dares  to  utter  in  your  presence  the  language 
of  sedition  or  of  treason,  depend  upon  it — take  my  word  for  it,  and  I 
am  your  sincere  friend — that  every  such  man  is  the  hired  emissary 
and  the  spy  of  your  Orange  enemies — that  his  real  object  is  to  betray 
you,  to  murder  you  under  the  forms  of  a  judicial  trial,  and  to  ruin 
your  country  for  your  guilt.  If,  on  the  contrary,  you  continue  at 
this  trying  moment  peaceful,  obedient  and  loyal ;  if  you  avoid  every 
secret  association,  and  every  incitement  to  turbulance ;  if  you  perse- 
vere in  your  obedience  to  the  laws,  and  in  fidelity  to  the  Crown 
and  Constitution,  your  Emancipation  is  certain,  and  not  distant,  and 
your  country  will  be  restored  to  you ;  your  natural  friends  and  pro- 
tectors will  seek  the  redress  of  your  grievances  in  and  from  parlia- 
ment, and  Ireland  will  be  again  free  and  happy.  If  you  suffer 
yourself  to  be  seduced  by  these  Orange  betrayers,  the  members  of  the 
board  will  not  be  bound  to  resist  your  crimes  with  their  lives;  you  will 
bring  disgi'ace  and  ruin  on  our  cause  ;  you  will  destroy  yourself  and 
your  families,  and  perpetuate  the  degradation  and  disgrace  of  your 
native  land.  But  my  fears  are  vain.  I  know  your  good  sense  ;  I  rely 
on  your  fidelity;  you  will  continue  to  baffle  your  enemies;  you  will 
continue  faithful  and  peaceable  ;  and  thus  shall  you  preserve  your- 
selves, pi'omote  your  cause,  and  give  security  to  the  empire." 

This  speech  was  received  throughout,  and  greeted  at  its 
conclusion,  with  warm  and  general  applause. 

Mr.  O'Connell  again  rose  shortly  after,  and  said  that  there 
was  a  matter  of  very  pressing  importance,  respecting  which  he 
had  to  move  a  resolution.  His  motion  would  have  reference  to 
the  important  business  of  the  subscriptions.     He  said — 

"  That  it  had  now  become  extremely  necessary  to  call  upon  the 
people  for  procuring  aid  to  counteract  the  effects  of  Orange  persecu- 
tion, and  to  meet  the  indispensible  expenses  attendant  on  the  prose- 
cution of  the  Petitions. 

"  A  resolution  like  the  present  had  been  passed  on  a  former  occasion ; 
but  means  had  not  been  taken  to  render  it  extensively  useful.     The 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,  M.P.  395 

board  found  themselves,  in  the  month  of  October  last,  indebted  in  a 
sum  of  not  less  than  £3,000.  He  was  at  that  time  called  to  the 
management  of  its  financial  concerns,  and  was  happy  to  say,  that  the 
debt  he  mentioned  had  been  paid  off,  and  a  surplus  remained  at  the 
present  in  bank. 

"  It  was  the  object  of  the  board  to  create  a  fund,  by  carrying  into 
effect  which  should  be  sufficient  to  provide  for  the  attainment  of 
justice  for  the  Catholic,  and  which  should  be  equal  to  the  legal  pro- 
tection of  every  Catholic  peasant  in  the  land  from  Orange  atrocities. 
Tliat  such  a  provision  had  been  necessary,  recent  events  (particularly 
those  in  the  county  of  Monaghan)  clearly  prove ;  and  that  neither 
legal  protection  nor  even  justice  itself  could  be  obtained  free  of 
expense,  was  a  fact  well  known.  He  thought  it  but  justice,  however, 
to  gentlemen  of  that  profession  to  which  he  had  the  honour  to  belong, 
to  say,  that  Catholic  advocates  were  no  expense  to  the  body.  (Loud 
applause.) 

"  That  money  was  wanted  would  not  be  denied  ;  and  he  knew  the 
board  had  only  to  call  upon  the  people  and  be  supplied.  The  Ca- 
tholics of  Ireland  were  always  found  willing  to  grant  more  than  was 
required  of  them  ;  and  would  be  particularly  willing  Avhen  they  knew 
it  was  to  protect  their  honest  brethren  in  remote  parts  of  the  country 
from  the  persecutions  of  Orangeism. 

"  He  would  recommend  a  general  subscription  throughout  every 
parish  in  Ireland  ;  but  he  would  wish  every  man  to  subscribe  only 
what  he  would  not  miss :  and  in  this  way,  without  bearing  heavy  on 
any  individual,  would  a  fund  be  collected,  sufficient  to  obtain  the 
objects  desired  upon  any  occasion  which  might  happen  unexpectedly 
to  call  for  pecuniary  sacrifices. 

"  As  he  had  other  subjects  of  more  exciting  interest,  though  not 
surpassing  that  he  was  now  alluding  to  in  practical  importance,  he 
would  not  detain  his  auditory  longer  upon  it  at  present,  but  content 
himself  with  moving — 


"  Resolved — '  That  the  expenses  unavoidably  attendant  upon  the  conduct  of 
Catholic  petitions,  and  the  defence  of  the  uivaded  rights  of  petitioning,  call  for 
the  liberal  aid  of  our  fellow-countrymen. 

"  '  And  that  we  confide  in  the  public  spirit  and  zeal  of  the  Catholic  body 
throughout  Ireland  for  ample  pecuniary  support.' 

"  This  resolution  was  carried  with  the  greatest  unanimity. 


396  MEMOlll    AND    SPEECHES    OF 


"  DOCTOR  MILNER. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  rose  to  propose  the  resolution  of  which  lie  had 
given  notice,  respecting  Dr.  Milner. 

"  He  said  there  certainly  had  been  some  difference  of  opinion  with 
regard  to  it  at  the  meeting  of  the  board ;  but  that,  from  what  he  had 
had  the  pleasure  of  observing  of  the  feelings  which  pervaded  the 
present  highly-respectable  and  imposing  meeting,  he  did  not,  and  he 
could  not,  for  one  moment  entertain  the  idea  that  any  such  difference 
would  be  found  to  exist  here.  There  had  been  in  the  board  no 
division  on  its  merits — it  was  a  mere  division  upon  form. 

"  That  venerable  prelate  had  been  expelled  by  the  paltry  club 
calling  itself  '  the  Catholic  Board  of  England !'  And  the  club  had 
perpetrated  this  upon  the  very  same  day  upon  which  they  thanked 
the  master  of  the  Flogging  and  Torturing  Club  in  Dublin — my  Lord 
Castlereagh  ! 

"  This,  indeed,  was  not  an  inconsistency  which  surprised  him. 
Lord  Castlereagh's  treacheries  and  cruelties  towards  the  Irish  people 
would  never  make  him  less  beloved  by  the  English,  and  that  the 
accident  of  an  Englishman's  being  a  Catholic  would  have  any  the 
slightest  effect  in  inducing  him  to  care  more  for  Ireland,  was  a  pro- 
position which  every  day's  experience  demonstrated  to  be  utterly  false 
and  absurd. 

"  Indeed,  what  better  illustration  could,  by  possibility,  be  given  of 
this,  than  was  supplied  by  the  fact,  that  this  venerable  agent  of  the 
Catholic  hierarchy  of  Ireland  was  made  the  sport  of  the  vilest  caprice 
and  the  most  spiteful  ill-nature  by  these  English  Catholics,  as  they 
called  themselves — for  what  crime  or  offence  think  you  ?  Simply  for 
proclaiming  that  to  be  schism  which  the  Catholic  prelates  of  Ireland 
have  unanimously  declared  to  be  so  ! 

"  I  cannot  forget,  although  the  English  Catholics  would  seem  to 
have  done  so,  that  this  venerable  prelate  combined  the  classic  elegance 
of  the  scholar  with  the  profound  learning  of  the  antiquarian  and  the 
divine  ;  that  he  was  one  of  the  first  who  treated  on  polemics  without 
forgetting  the  dictates  of  politeness  and  the  practices  of  civility,  and 
bore  himself  through  all  the  excitements  of  religious  controversy  with 
the  temper  and  manners  of  a  gentleman. 

"  The  resolution  was  warmly  su])ported  by  Mr.  O'Gormun,  and 
was  passed  amid  great  cheering." 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  397 

The  Evening  Post  had  the  following  additional  remarks  on 
the  circumstances  attending  this  vote : — 

"  We  observed  that  about  twelve  or  fourteen  members  of  the  Ca- 
tholic Board,  who  were  lately  most  vehement  in  opposing  the  vote  of 
thanks  to  the  prelates,  were  absent  from  this  meeting. 

"  We  can  name  Lord  Trimleston,  Mr.  Bodkin  Hussey,  the  two 
Bellews,  Thomas  Dillon,  &c.,  all  of  whom  were  in  town,  hut  probably 
they  had  prudential  reasons. 

"  Mr.  Hussey  was  seen  in  the  morning  riding  about  town,  at  a 
quick  pace,  upon  his  gray  pony  ;  but  his  caution  preserved  him  from 
the  rough  reception  of  his  determined  and  plain-dealing  fellow- 
countrymen. 

"  Indeed  we  saw  none  of  the  anti-prelatists — or,  to  use  Mr.  Coyle's 
phrase,  the  Orange  Catholics — at  this  meeting,  save  two  or  three. 
Of  these  one  had  not  the  discretion  to  remain  a  mere  observer,  like 
his  comrades,  but,  in  a  silly  hour,  came  forward  to  apologize  for  his 
absent  friends  ! 

"  He  was  hooted  with  one  universal  hiss,  and  every  mark  of  dis- 
pleasure. At  length,  by  the  intervention  of  the  chairman  and 
Counsellor  O'Gorman,  he  obtained  a  hearing  ;  and,  in  a  flurried  and 
incoherent  tone,  endeavoured  to  intimate  that  his  friends  only 
happened  to  be  absent. 

"  '  Happened !'  resounded  through  the  assembly.  '  Let  them  stay 
away,  and  never  disgrace  our  meetings !' 

"  Mr.  O'Gorman  and  Mr.  Lalor  made  many  pointed  observations 
upon  the  occurence. 

"  Mr.  Lalor  observed,  that  he  '  supposed  the  absence  of  these  eight 
or  ten^ne  gentleynen  was  calculated  for  stage  etfect  in  some  of  the 
government  prints,  and  in  order  to  cast  a  disparagement  upon  the 
assembly.  He  hoped  they  would  soon  turn  Protestants.  At  all 
events,  the  best  apology  they  could  otfer  for  their  absence  would  be 
found  in  their  never  presuming  in  future  to  present  themselves  at  any 
meeting  of  their  suffering  fellow-Catholics.'     (Loud  applause.) 

"  In  truth,  these  worthies  were  not  missed  ;  and  if  their  discreet 
messenger  had  not  obtruded  the  idea,  nobody  would  have  thought  of 
them. 

"  Their  superiors  were  present  at  this  meeting.  We  saw  many 
Catholics  far  higher  than  these   anti-prelatists  in  personal  character ; 


398  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

worth,  talent,  experience,  integrity,  public   opinion,  ancient  family, 
age,  and  in  fortune  too — in  personal  property  and  in  landed  estates. 

"  And  we  speak  without  the  slightest  particle  of  exaggeration 
when  we  affirm,  that  in  all  these  respects  the  aggregate  meeting  of 
Tuesday  last  exceeded  any  other  that  we  have  ever  yet  witnessed  in 
Ireland." 

So  far  the  Dublin  Evening  Post,  and  according:  to  living 
authority,  the  writer  did  not  exaggerate  in  his  description. 

This  meeting  (we  have  not  done  with  it  yet,  as  another 
occurrence  at  it  remains  to  be  detailed)  had,  however,  an 
importance  of  a  far  higher  and  graver  nature  than  any  which 
could  be  given  by  the  character  of  the  attendance  at  it.  The 
first  great  blow  was  here  given  to  the  hopes  of  the  Vetoists,  and 
the  first  great  repulse  administered  to  the  base  and  grovelling 
spirit  of  compromise  and  religious  indiflPerentism. 

It  now  was  made  evident  to  enemies  and  friends,  that  what- 
ever tendency  there  might  be  among  a  portion — a  degenerate 
portion  of  the  Catholics  of  the  upper  classes — that  the  heart  of 
Ireland  was  sound  alike  in  politics  and  religion. 

The  struggle  was  not  ended,  indeed,  as  the  detail  of  Mr. 
O'Connell's  eff"orts  in  the  ensuing  year  will  amply  show  ;  but 
the  prestige  of  popular  success  was  won,  and  the  enemies  of 
Ireland  were  dispirited  and  disheartened. 

The  insidious  attempts  of  the  last  two  years  to  sow  dissension 
between  the  Catholics  of  Ireland  and  their  prelates  and  clergy, 
are  fast  upraising  against  themselves,  a  storm  of  popular  indig- 
nation similar  in  force  and  eff'ect  to  that  which  crushed  the 
"  Veto"  and  "  Securities' "  schemes  in  the  times  of  which  we 
are  writing. 

As  we  have  noticed,  there  remained,  after  the  resolution  of 
gratitude  to  Doctor  Milner  had  thus  been  triumphantly  passed,  yet 
another  matter  of  importance  to  be  disposed  of.  It  was  Mr. 
O'Connell's  motion  for  an  address  from  the  Roman  Catholics  of 
Ireland,  to  the  unfortunate  and  much-persecuted  Princess  of 
Wales — the  unhappy,  and,  if  erring,  grievously  punished  wife  of 
the  Regent. 


DANIEI-    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.V.  399 

Of  that  man's  infamous  history  one  of  the  blackest  pages  is 
the  record  of  his  cold-hearted,  unmanly,  cruel,  and  tyrannous 
conduct  towards  her ;  and  one  of  the  most  disgraceful  circum- 
stances in  the  history  of  the  English  aristocracy,  is  the  support 
and  sanction  they  gave  him  in  his  brutality. 

Mr.  O'Connell,  at  this  as  at  a  later  period  of  the  persecution 
unto  death  which  this  unhappy  woman  underwent,  took  an  active 
part  amongst  her  defenders. 

On  this  occasion  the  following  was  the  tenor  of  his  speech  : — 

"  He  declared  he  had  never,  in  the  whole  course  of  his  life,  pro- 
ceeded to  address  a  Catholic,  or  any  other  public  assembly,  with  a 
deeper  or  more  firm  conviction  in  his  mind — that  he  was  about  to 
propose  a  measure  eminently  and  powerfully  recommended  by  the 
best  dictates  of  the  judgment,  and  the  noblest  feelings  of  the  heart ! 

"  It  was  a  resolution  which,  he  was  convinced,  would  do  credit  to 
their  feelings,  not  only  as  Catholics  and  as  Irishmen,  but  as 
Christians  and  as  men.  It  would  procure  for  them  the  esteem  of 
the  friends  of  virtue,  and  obtain  a  triumph  over  the  enemies  of 
goodness. 

"  I  am  (continued  he),  I  confess,  most  deeply  anxious  for  the 
success  of  my  present  motion,  as  I  should  be  grieved,  indeed,  to  have 
any  reason  to  think  so  poorly  of  my  countrymen,  as  to  believe  that 
they  could,  by  any  possibility,  be  capable  of  rejecting  it. 

"  I  think  I  can  satisfy  you  by  the  clearest  and  most  convincing 
arguments  of  the  propriety  of  adopting  it.  The  proposal  is  for  an 
address  to  her  Royal  Highness  the  Princess  of  Wales.  (Loud  cheer- 
ing followed — the  entire  meeting,  as  if  by  an  electrical  impulse, 
rose — the  ladies  waved  their  handkerchiefs,  the  men  waved  their 
hats,  and  three  distinct  shouts  of  applause  ensued.  We  have  never 
witnessed  such  enthusiasm.) 

"  Oh,  no,  (said  Mr.  O'Connell,)  I  will  not  argue  the  point  at  all  ; 
I  will  not  enter  into  any  reasoning  on  the  subject :  indeed,  I  will  not. 
I  leave  it  to  your  hearts — to  your  Irish  hearts — to  regulate  your 
conduct.     (Loud  applause.) 

"  It  was,  my  countrymen,  a  foul  conspiracy  ;  subornation  of  per- 
jury, the  meanest  and  most  abominable  of  crimes,  and  perjury  itself, 
at  all  times  foul  and  unnatural,  but  in  this,  most  foul,  and  most  un- 
natural.    These  atrocities  were  levelled  against  a  stranger,  friendless 


400  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

and  alone,  in  a  land  of  strangers — against  a  female,  at  a  distance  from 
her  parents,  and  deprived  of  her  natural  protector.  Good  God  ! 
where  is  the  thing,  in  human  shape,  that  can  read  of  these  horrors 
and  not  join  in  the  shout  of  execration  ! — that  can  behold  the  triumph 
of  the  innocence  of  this  illustrious  lady,  and  not  offer  the  feeble 
tribute  of  applause ! 

"  Yet,  there  have  been  such  beings — there  are  such  monsters ! 
The  Giffards  of  the  Dublin  Corporation — and  there  are  many  Gif- 
fards,  differing  in  degree,  but  combining  in  principle — the  Giffards  of 
the  Corporation  have  refused  to  say  that  perjury  is  a  crime — that 
persecuted  virtue  deserves  countenance  and  support.  They  have 
refused  to  say  so,  because  they  do  not  think  perjury  a  crime,  when 
employed  against  an  enemy  ;  they  do  not  deem  virtue  an  object  of 
any  admiration ;  money  is  their  God — to  that  they  are  devoted. 

"  I  said  I  would  not  enter  into  any  detail  or  reasoning  upon  this 
subject,  and  I  will  keep  my  promise ;  but  allow  me  to  remark  upon 
one  circumstance,  in  the  case  of  this  illustrious  lady.  She  becomes 
a  widowed  wife  soon  after  her  marriage,  but  by  whose  default  ?  I 
do  not  stop  to  accuse  any  person ;  but  this  I  must  say,  that  even  her 
envenomed  and  unprincipled  enemies  have  not  dared  to  attribute  to 
her  any  blame  for  the  separation  from  her  husband.  She  has  never 
been  accused  of  any  fault  to  cause  or  justify  that  separation,  and  she 
stands,  perhaps,  the  solitary  instance  in  domestic,  or,  indeed,  in  any 
other  quarrel,  where  one  party  was  confessedly  and  altogether 
innocent. 

"  This,  I  own,  has  made  a  strong  impression  on  my  mind,  and  I 
cannot  help  thinking  that  there  must  have  been  great  purity,  and 
great  delicacy  in  the  conduct  of  the  lady,  who  upon  such  an  occasion 
as  this,  escaped  with  her  honour,  not  only  untouched  by  any  wound, 
but  unsullied  by  any  stain,  even  in  the  imagination  of  calumny  itself. 
For  the  credit  of  her  sex — for  the  dignity  of  human  nature,  I  rejoice 
that  she  so  escaped,  and  the  less  wonder  at  the  subsequent  triumph 
which  the  miraculous  force  of  her  innocence  afforded  her,  against  the 
vilest  and  most  artful  conspiracy  that  was  ever  formed  against  life 
and  honour. 

"  I  cannot  avoid  also  taking  notice  of  the  absurd  pretext  which 
has  been  lately  set  up,  to  cover  the  real  delinquents  in  this  atrocious 
conspiracy  against  her  Royal  Highness.  It  is  said  she  owes  it  all  to 
her  indiscreet  friendship  for  Lady  Douglas ;  but  see  how  the  fact 
contradicts  that  assertion  ;  for,  in  1804,  the  year  before  Lady  Douglas 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  401 

gave  in  her  statement,  we  have  seen  that  the  apothecaries  were  ex- 
amined, and  that  Lord  Moira — why — oh  why,  is  poor  Ireland  doomed 
to  blush  at  that  name,  too — we  have  seen  Lord  Moira  condescend  to 
shrug  and  wink  at  the  animated  honesty  of  Esmeade :  that  scene 
took  place  before  this  miserable  Lady  Douglas  became  an  actor  in 
the  conspiracy ;  she  therefore  cannot  be  considered  as  the  prime 
mover  of  the  conspiracy :  you  must  go  further  back  to  reach  at  the 
real  author. 

"  Permit  me  also  to  remark  upon  one  other  circumstance,  in  the 
case  of  this  injured  and  innocent  lady.  By  the  testimony  of  her 
servants,  it  now  appears  that  they  were  placed  about  her  in  the 
double  capacity  of  attendants  and  of  spies.  For  years  she  was  sur- 
rounded with  persons  employed  and  anxious  to  discover  in  her  some 
fault  or  some  crime.  She  was  quite  unconscious  of  being  surrounded 
by  those  spies ;  but  she  was  perfectly  safe  under  the  protection  of 
her  innocence.  She  has  not  been  acquitted  for  the  want  of  evidence. 
If  crime  existed,  the  witnesses  stood  ready  to  note  it  down ;  nay,  so 
anxious  were  they  to  supply  evidence  against  her,  that  we  find  them 
torturing  trivial,  unimportant  circumstances  into  evidence  of  guilt, 
and  directly  inventing  falsehoods,  to  give  a  colour  to  the  conspiracy. 
She  is  therefore  enabled,  proudly  to  feel,  that  she  owes  her  acquittal 
to  her  innocence  alone ;  had  she  been  guilty,  she  must  have  been 
convicted. 

"  I  close  these  few  observations  on  this  momentous  case,  by  enter- 
ing my  solemn  protest,  as  a  lawyer,  against  the  species  of  tribunal 
before  which  she  was  tried,  and  which,  unable,  though  clearly  not 
unwilling,  to  convict,  dared  to  censure  her  whom  they  had  not  heard, 
and  could  not  hear  in  her  defence.  A  more  inquisitorial  or  unjust 
proceeding  never  disgraced  the  dungeons  of  the  Inquisitions.  It  is 
<  as  false  as  hell.'  Permit  me  to  quote  one  of  her  judges — '  It  is  as 
false  as  hell  to  pretend  that  this  tribunal  Avas  warranted  or  j  ustified  in 
taking  cognizance  of  the  matter  at  all ;  it  was  a  tribunal  illegal  in  its 
formation,  and  shamefully  disgraceful  in  its  result !' 

"  I  repeat  it,  how  dai-e  they  to  inflict  the  punishment,  the  dreadful 
punishment  of  censure  on  the  honour  of  a  woman  who  had  not  been 
heard  to  explain  or  to  defend  ?     (Hear,  hear.) 

"  There  is,  however,  another  view  of  this  subject  which  presses 
strongly  on  my  mind.  The  Orange  lodges  are  about  to  be  established 
in  England.  By  this,  more  may  be  meant  than  meets  the  hearing. 
We  have  heard  that  some  Orange  lodges  in  this  country  had  taken 

2  D 


402  MKMOIK    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

an  oath  of  fidelity  to  the  Duke  of  York.  It  is  about  four  years  since 
three  soldiers  were  brought  up  from  Belfast,  charged,  as  the  news- 
papers informed  us,  with  swearing  in  Orangemen  to  join  the  Duke 
of  York  against  the  Prince  of  Wales.  These  men  were  not  punished 
— they  were,  probably,  privately  reprimanded  for  their  indiscretion. 
I  know  not,  nor  do  I  care  if  they  have  been  subsequently  promoted 
or  rewarded.  But  it  presses  very  strongly  upon  my  mind,  that 
we  are  not  the  sole  objects  of  the  English  Orange  lodges.  The 
Regent  is  far  from  being  of  an  active  or  penetrating  disposition. 
He,  of  course,  would  never  consent  to  the  disinheriting  of  his  child. 
Yet  how  do  we  know,  but  that  in  the  secrecy  of  the  Orange  associa- 
tion, some  plan  may  be  devised  and  matured  to  alter  succession, 
and  to  prevent  a  female  reign  ? 

"  Perhaps  it  is  for  this  that  Ox'angeism,  with  its  conditional 
allegiance,  is  now  adopted.  If  it  be — if  there  be  any  plan  for  alter- 
ing the  succession  in  agitation,  there  is  no  harm  in  saying  that 
I  am  against  the  Duke,  and  for  the  Princess.  (Hear,  hear.)  I 
speak  not  to  boast,  but  I  have  enough  of  property  to  make  me 
independent ;  if  I  had  no  property,  I  have  a  profession,  which, 
in  the  kindness  of  my  countrymen,  would  make  me  independent, 
even  if  I  had  no  property.  I  easily  yield  to  the  delicacy  which 
forbids  me  to  speak  of  matters  of  a  domestic  nature,  but  I  may  be 
permitted  to  say,  that  I  have  those  domestic  charities  about  me, 
which  make  the  cup  of  life  sweet.  Oh,  sweet,  indeed  !  But  I  am 
ready  to  sacrifice  property,  and  profession,  and  existence,  in  the 
cause  of  the  legitimate  successor  to  the  throne  ;  and  if  they  shall 
attempt  to  alter  the  succession,  I  will  fight  against  the  traitors,  and 
for  the  young  Princess,  at  your  head,  or  by  your  side.  (Loud  cheers.) 
"  Let  not  these  traitors  be  enabled  hereafter  to  revive  these 
calumnies  against  her  mother ;  let  them,  at  least,  be  met  in  any 
such  attempts,  by  the  verdict  of  acquittal  pronounced  by  Catholic 
Ireland,  and  recorded  in  this  your  address.  The  fashion  of  cutting 
the  throats  of  wives  is  gone  by.  Henry  the  Eighth,  the  English 
apostle  of  the  Reformation,  had  a  speedy  method  of  getting  rid  of 
a  disagreeable  wife.  He  it  was  that  first  discovered  the  ei-rors  of  the 
Church  of  Rome  in  the  fair  face  of  a  young  lady.  In  the  present  day, 
it  is  said,  that  the  crimes  of  the  Catliolics  have  been  detected  in  tlie 
bloated  visage  of  an  ancient  matron.  This  taste  of  Henry  was  more 
correct,  but  not  more  laudable.  The  attempt  to  destroy  female  honour, 
wherever  it  originated,    is,    however,   as    foul,   nay,    perhaps,    more 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  403 

fovil,  tlian  to  take  away  the  female  life.  The  Irish  were  disgusted 
by  the  first  experiment ;  they  cannot  refrain  from  horror  at  the 
second  ;  nor  (;an  any  paltry  consideration  of  personal  interest  restrain 
them  from  expressing  that  abhorrence. 

"  Our  first  interest  is  to  be  honest,  just,  and  manly.  Our  first 
duty  is  to  discountenance  and  condemn  the  perjurers  and  their 
employers.  Our  proudest  and  best  feelings  are  to  exalt  and  praise 
persecuted  innocence.  (Loud  burst  of  applause.)  We  cannot  com- 
mand success  for  ourselves  ;  we  cannot  coax  the  Prince  Regent,  nor 
bribe  the  parliament ;  but  it  is  in  our  power  to  deserve  to  be 
successful  ;  to  show  that  we  are  men — that  we  are  Irishmen,  to 
whom  nothing  is  alien  which  partakes  of  justice,  dignity,  and 
generosity.  (Cheers.) 

"  Yes,  let  this  address  injure  our  cause,  yet  I  would  recommend 
it  to  your  adoption  upon  that  account ;  because,  thus  you  would 
have  some  sacrifice  to  offer  upon  the  altar  of  justice  and  of  persecuted 
innocence.   (Loud  and  repeated  applause.) 

"  I  do,  therefore,  move  that  the  following  address  be  adopted  : — 

"  '  The  Address  of  the  Roman  Catholics  of  Ireland,  to  her  Royal  Highness  the 
Princess  of  Wales,  on  her  escape  from  the  Conspiracy. 

"  '  May  it  please  your  Royal  Highness. 

"  'We,  the  Roman  Catholic  people  of  Ireland,  beg  leave  to  offer  our  un- 
feigned congratulations  on  your  providential  escape  from  the  conspiracjs 
which  so  lately  endangered  both  your  life  and  honour — a  conspiracj%  un- 
manly in  its  motives,  unnatural  in  its  objects,  and  unworthy  in  its  means — a 
conspiracy,  combining  so  monstrous  an  union  of  turpitude  and  treason,  that 
it  is  diflBcult  to  say,  whether  royalty  would  have  suffered  more  from  its  suc- 
cess, than  human  nature  has  from  its  conception. 

"  '  Our  allegiance  is  not  less  shocked  at  the  infernal  spirit  which  would  sully 
the  diadem,  by  breathing  on  its  most  precious  ornament  the  virtue  of  its 
wearer,  than  our  best  feelings  are  wounded  at  the  inhospitable  baseness  which 
would  betray  the  innocence  of  a  female  in  a  land  of  strangers  ! ! 

' '  '  Deem  it  not  disrespectful,  illustrious  lady,  that,  from  a  people  pro- 
verbially ardent  in  the  cause  of  the  defenceless,  the  shout  of  virtuous  con- 
gratulation should  receive  a  feeble  echo.  Our  harp  has  been  long  unused 
to  tones  of  gladness,  and  our  hills  but  faintly  answer  the  unusual  accent.  Your 
heart,  however,  can  appreciate  the  silence  inflicted  by  suffering  ;  and  ours, 
alas!  feel,  but  too  acutely,  _that  the  commisseration  is  sincere  which  flows  from 
sympathy. 

"  '  Let  us  hope  that,  when  congratulating  virtue  in  your  royal  person,  on  her 
signal  triumph  over  the  perjured,  the  profligate,  and  the  corrupt,  we  may  also 


\ 


404  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

rejoice  in  the  completion  of  its  consequences.  Let  us  hope,  that  the  society  of 
your  only  child  again  solaces  your  dignified  retirement ;  and  that,  to  the  mis- 
fortune of  being  a  widowed  wife,  is  not  added  the  pang,  of  being  a  childless 
mother. 

"  'But  if,  madam,  our  hopes  are  not  fulfilled — if,  indeed,  the  cry  of  an 
indignant  and  unanimous  people  is  disregarded,  console  yourself  with  the 
reflection  that,  though  your  exiled  daughter  may  not  hear  the  precepts  of 
VIRTUE  from  your  lips,  she  may,  at  least,  study  the  practice  of  it  in  your 
example.'   (Cheers)" 

The  following  resolutions  were  then  passed  unanimously  : — 

•'  Eesolved — '  That  the  address  to  her  Royal  Highness  the  Princess  of  Wales, 
now  read,  be  adopted,  and  that  the  individuals  composing  the  general  board  of 
the  Catholics  of  Ireland,  be  requested  to  procure  signatures  thereto. 

"Resolved — '  That  the  Catholic  delegates,  now  in  London,  be  requested  to 
present  the  said  address,  in  the  most  respectful  manner,  to  her  Royal  Highness 
the  Princess  of  Wales.' " 

The  next  meeting  of  the  Catholic  board  was  held  on  the  19th 
of  June,  in  Stationers'  Hall. 

Nicholas  Purcell  O' Gorman,  Esq.,  in  the  Chair. 

"  Mr.  Finn  stated  that  the  secretary,  Mr.  Hay  (who  arrived  from 
England  and  was  in  his  place  at  the  board),  requested  him  to  act  as 
he  had  been  in  the  custom  of  doing,  for  this  day,  Mr.  Hay  not  having 
had  time  to  make  himself  acquainted  with  the  business  of  the  day. 

"  PETITION  TO  PARLIAMENT. 

"  Mr.  Finn  then  proceeded  to  read  some  letters,  the  most  material 
of  which  were  the  following  : — 

**  A  letter  from  Earl  Donoughmore  to  Sir  Thomas  Esmonde,in  answer 
to  one  which  the  Baronet  had  written,  as  chairman  of  the  meeting,  at 
which  the  resolution,  requesting  bis  Lordship  to  present  the  Catholic 
petition  immediately  to  the  House  of  Lords,  had  passed,  and  enclosing 
that  resolution.  His  Lordsliip's  letter  stated,  that,  previous  to  the 
receipt  of  Sir  Thomas's,  he  had  written  to  Lord  Fingal,  apprising  him 
of  the  unanimous  decision  which  the  parliamentary  friends  of  the 
Catholics  had  come  to,  not  to  bring  the  question  before  parliament  at 
present,  for  many  reasons  which  were  fully  detailed  in  the  communi- 
cation to  his  Lordship,  and  concluded  by  saying,  that  he  was  certain 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  405 

it  would  only  be  necessary  for  him,  in  answer  to  tbeir  resolution,  to 
direct  the  attention  of  the  board  to  that  letter. 


"  THE  REGENT'S  PLEDGE. 

"  The  next  was  a  letter  from  the  Earl  of  Fingal,  respecting  the 
Regent's  pledge.  His  Lordship  stated  that  he  had  never  had  an 
audience  or  interview  with  his  Eoyal  Highness  in  the  presence  of 
Lord  Clifden  and  Lord  Petre,  as  had  been  supposed.  That  he 
thought  conversations  between  individuals  of  whatever  relative  rank, 
or  even  the  written  report  of  such  conversations,  could  not  form  just 
grounds  for  the  proceedings  of  any  public  body.  That  if  he  was  to 
credit  the  repoi't  of  the  proceedings  of  the  board,  which  had  been 
published  in  the  newspapers,  and  the  speeches  attributed  by  those 
papers,  to  certain  respectable  individuals,  an  extraordinary  mis- 
conception had  taken  place — that  he  had  not  the  pledge  which  was 
supposed,  &c. 

*'  The  next  was  from  Lord  Clifden,  enclosed  in  the  preceding,  and 
addressed  to  Lord  Fingal.  Lord  Clifden  said  that  there  must  be 
some  mistake  in  the  business  ;  that  he  never  had  the  honour  of  an 
audience  with  the  Prince  in  the  presence  of  Lord  Fingal,  or  the  late 
Lord  Petre,  as  seemed  to  be  supposed,  and  that  with  respect  to  the 
written  pledge  he  had  never  seen  it. 

"  The  next  letter  was  from  Sir  Francis  Goold,  and  stated  that  he 
found  his  name  had  been  mentioned  in*"  the  debate  at  the  Catholic 
board,  respecting  the  supposed  pledge  of  the  Regent ;  that  he  had 
not  the  most  remote  recollection  of  the  circumstances  of  this  sup- 
posed pledge  ;  that  from  his  not  having  the  least  trace  of  it  on  his 
memory,  he  did  not  think  it  could  even  have  taken  place,  but  that  he 
(Sir  Francis)  ever  had  a  strong  impression  upon  his  mind  that  his 
Royal  Highness  the  Prince  Regent  had  always  expressed  himself  in 
very  favourable  terms  towards  the  Catholics  of  Ireland. 

"Major  Bryan,  conceiving  that  the  letters  which  had  been  just 
read  involved  a  contradiction  of  what  he  had  stated  on  a  former  day 
respecting  this  pledge,  felt  himself  called  upon  to  say  a  few  words. 
He  declared  upon  his  honour,  that  about  five  years  ago  he  was  called 
into  Mr.  Fitzpatrick's  inner  shop,  where  Lord  Fingal  stated,  in  the 
presence  of  Sir  Francis  Goold  and  Mr.  O'Connell,  that  after  the  rejec- 
tion by  parliament  of  a  Catholic  petition,  he  had  seen  the  Prince  Regent 
in  the  presence  of  Lord  Clifden  and  the  late  Lord  Petre,  when  his  Royal 


406  MEMOIR     AND    SPEECHES    OF 

Highness  had  expressed  himself  in  favour  of  the  Catholics,  in  terras  so 
extremely  strong,  that  his  Lordship  had  thought  proper  to  commit  them 
to  paper,  and  that  after  he  had  done  so,  he  waited  upon  Lord  Clifden 
and  upon  Lord  Petre  to  inquire  whether  the  minute  he  had  made 
was  correct,  and  that  they  had  both  declared  it  was.  Major  Bryan 
did  not  pledge  himself  as  to  the  ivords  of  the  conversation,  but  with 
regard  to  the  substance  he  was  positive.  He  was  not  certain  either 
that  Lord  Fingal  had  used  the  word  audience,  nor  was  he  courtier 
enough  to  know  the  distinction  between  audience  and  interview  or 
conversation. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  gave  the  same  solemn  pledge  which  Major  Bryan 
had  done,  respecting  what  passed  in  Mr.  Fitzpatrick's  shop.  He  also 
avowed  the  accuracy  of  the  report  of  his  speech  which  had  appeared. 
He  was  glad  to  perceive  that  Lord  Fingal's  letter,  when  attentively 
perused,  did  not  contradict  what  he  had  said.  His  Lordship  says, 
there  was  no  audience  ;  but  he  goes  on  to  say,  that  conversations,  or 
the  wi-itten  report  of  conversations,  &c.,  cannot  form  a  just  ground 
for  the  proceedings  of  a  public  body.  If  there  had  not  been  a  con- 
versation and  a  written  report  of  it,  Mr.  O'Connell  thought  this 
paragraph  would  not  have  been  introduced.  He  professed  much 
respect  for  Lord  Fingal,  but  declared,  that  he  should  take  an  oppor- 
tunity of  requesting  a  distinct  answer  from  his  Lordship,  whether 
there  is,  or  ever  was,  any  written  report  of  the  sentiments  expressed 
by  the  Prince  to  his  Lordship. 


" COUNTY  OF  MONAGHAN. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  reported  from  the  committee  appointed  to  consider 
the  best  mode  of  obtaining  legal  protection  for  the  Catholics  of  this 
county  against  Orange  persecutions.  He  recommended  conciliatory 
measures  to  put  an  end  to  all  ill-feeling,  and  hoped  that  much  might 
be  effected  through  the  channel  of  some  Protestant  magistrates  who 
were  favourably  disposed.  It  was  necessary,  however,  in  order  to 
give  the  Catholics  the  efficient  protection  of  the  law,  that  money 
should  be  had,  and  he  therefore  moved,  that  it  be  referred  to  the  com- 
mittee of  accounts  to  consider  the  propriety  of  contributing  a  sum  for 
this  purpose. 

"  Mr.  Carolan  seconded  the  motion,  which  was?  unanimously 
carried. 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,  M.]'.  407 


"MR.  FINN. 

"  Major  Bryan,  seeing  their  worthy  secretary,  Mr.  Hay,  in  his 
place,  concluded  that  the  services  of  Mr.  Finn  in  that  department 
were  suspended,  but  thought  the  board  owed  it  to  the  zeal  and  atten- 
tion of  that  gentleman,  to  give  him  their  most  cordial  thanks.  Major 
B.  then  moved  a  vote  of  thanks,  which  was  carried  unanimously. 

"  Mr.  Finn  threw  himself  on  the  indulgence  of  the  meeting, 
returned  thanks,  and  took  that  opportunity  to  speak  of  a  paragraph 
which  had  appeared  in  the  report  of  the  former  Saturday's  proceed- 
ings, as  published  in  a  certain  newspaper.  He  acquitted  the  respect- 
able proprietor  of  the  paper  of  countenancing  it,  and  said  that  gentle- 
man had  declared  he  knew  nothing  of  its  author.  He  also  acquitted 
the  gentleman  who  reported  for  the  paper  in  question.  He  called 
upon  the  author  of  this  bai'efaced,  false,  and  malignant  attempt  to 
assassinate  his  reputation,  to  have  the  manliness  to  come  forward  and 
avow  himself  if  he  dare,  and  concluded  by  declaring  he  had  suspicions 
that  it  emanated  from  amongst  themselves,  and  if  the  board  did  not 
mark  their  disapprobation  of  it,  this  undei-hand  assassin  might 
gibbet  them  all,  one  by  one,  as  they  happened  to  fall  under  his 
displeasure. 

"  Mr.  Hay  took  that  occasion  to  return  thanks  for  the  kind  manner 
in  which  the  board  had  undertaken  his  defence  in  his  absence,  and 
declared  he  felt  the  want  of  words  to  express  his  gratitude.  He  said 
that  as  some  shameful  and  most  unjust  insinuations  had  been  thrown 
out  against  him,  he  was  anxious  for  an  inquiry  into  his  conduct,  and 
then  alluded  to  a  letter  from  Lord  Donoughmore  to  Dr.  Troy,  which 
has  been  recently  published,  and  thought  its  appearance  at  this  late 
period  was  uncalled  for.  It  did  not  contradict  what  he  had  stated, 
as  he  never  said  Lord  D.  showed  him  Dr.  Troy's  communication. 
His  authority  for  what  he  had  mentioned,  was  a  letter  from  Doctor 
Power,  of  Waterford,  to  Sir  J.  Newport,  in  which  the  Rev.  Dr.  said 
that  Dr.  T.  had  agreed  to  the  bill. 

"MR.  CkARLES  BUTLER. 

"  Mr.  Hay,  after  some  observations,  moved  that  certain  letters 
written  by  Mr.  C.  Butler  to  Mr.  Grattan  and  Lord  Castlereagh,  and 
sent  to  Mr.  Scully  in  February  last,  be  laid  on  the  table. 


408  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

*'  These  letters  had  been  read  to  the  board  by  Mr.  O'Counell 
immediately  after  they  were  received.  Mr.  Hay  seemed  to  think 
they  contained  some  reflections  on  Lord  Fingal,  but  both  the  other 
gentlemen  were  decided  in  the  contrary  opinion.  Some  conversation 
took  place,  after  which  the  motion  was  agreed  to. 

"  It  was  understood  that  the  answer  of  Mr.  Scully  (agreeable  to 
that  gentleman's  wish)  shall  be  laid  before  the  board  with  Mr. 
Butler's  letters. 

"ADDRESS  TO  THE  PEOPLE, 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  rose  to  report  from  the  committee  appointed  to 
revise  the  address  to  the  population  of  Ireland,  which  had  been  read, 
and  referred  last  Saturday.  He  stated  that  five  members  out  of  the 
seven,  of  which  the  committee  consisted,  were  unanimous  in  approv- 
ing of  the  address  as  it  now  stood,  and  without  alteration.  The 
other  two  had  been  unable  to  attend.  One  most  respectable  gentle- 
man, Mr.  R.  M'Donnell,  had  mentioned  to  Mr.  O'Connell  that  there 
were  passages  in  the  address  which  he  wished  to  have  altered,  and  as 
he  was  prevented  from  attending,  by  the  most  imperative  business, 
Mr.  O'Connell  proposed  that  the  address  be  re-committed,  with 
directions  to  report  next  Saturday,  in  oi'der  to  afibrd  Mr.  M'Donnell 
an  opportunity  to  make  his  objections. 

"  Major  Bryan  seconded  the  motion,  a  proceeding  which  was  the 
offspring  of  his  respect  for  Mr.  M'Donnell  more  than  his  conviction 
of  its  propriety. 

"  Mr.  Finn  thought  that  the  re-commitment  would  afford  a  very 
bad  precedent ;  that  the  address  was  much  called  for,  and  wished  it 
to  be  immediately  adopted. 

"  Major  Bryan  was  quite  of  Mr.  Finn's  opinion.  His  support  of 
Mr.  O'Connell's  motion  was  grounded  entirely  on  his  respect  for  Mr. 
M'Donnell,  not  that  he  thought  it  would  be  of  any  consequence,  as 
Jive  members  out  of  the  seven,  of  which  the  committee  was  composed, 
wei-e  for  the  adoption  of  the  address  in  the  shape  in  which  it  had  been 
submitted  to  them. 

"  Mr.  Scully  said  a  few  words  on  the  same  side. 

"  Mr.  O'Connor  thought  that  if  there  was  a  period  at  which  it 
behoved  the  Catholics  to  be  more  circumspect  in  their  conduct  than 
another,  this  was  the  time.  He  had  not  heard  the  address  read  until 
this  day,  and  from   the  idea  which  he  had  collected  of  it,  from  the 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  409 

reading  that  had  just  taken  place,  it  struck  him  that  there  were 
objectionable  passages  in  it.  Deferring  its  adoption  for  one  week 
could  possibly  do  no  injury,  and  during  that  time  gentlemen  might 
have  an  opportunity  of  reading  it  carefully.  He  was,  therefore, 
decidedly  for  the  re-commitment. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  moved  that  Mr.  O'Connor's  name  be  added  to  the 
committee.  He  had  many  reasons  for  this.  The  expression  '  male- 
factors,' in  the  address,  alluded  to  those  who  had  encouraged  and  paid 
the  well-known  author  of  that  audacious  forgery  '  the  Third  Part  of 
the  Statement  of  the  Penal  Laws.'  Would  any  man  say,  that  the 
persons  who  salaried,  and  paid,  and  encouraged  the  libellers  and 
calumniators  of  the  Catholics,  while  the  Catholics  themselves  were 
rigorously  punished  for  the  slightest  infraction  of  the  law,  were  not 
malefactors  ?  Mr.  O'Connell  also  moved,  that  the  name  of  Michael 
Fitzsimon,  Esq.,  be  added  to  the  committee.  The  address  was  then 
re-committed,  and  the  names  of  those  two  gentlemen  added. 

"FOKGERIES  TO  DUBLIN  PETITION. 

*'  Mr.  O'Connell  reported  from  the  committee  appointed  to  inquire 
into  forgeries  affixed  to  the  Lord  Mayor's  petition  ;  stated  that  the 
books  of  signatures  were  now  printed,  and  that  the  committee  would 
be  able  to  make  their  final  report  next  Saturday. 

"THE  PRINCESS  OF  WALES. 

"Mr.  O'Connell  stated,  that  upon  referring  to  the  numerous 
addresses  to  her  Royal  Highness  from  public  bodies  in  England,  it 
had  been  found  that  they  had  been  uniformly  signed  by  the  chairman 
and  secretary.  He,  therefore,  proposed  that  the  address  to  her  Royal 
Highness  be  signed  by  the  chairman  and  secretary  of  the  late  aggre- 
gate meeting.     Agreed  to  unanimously. 

"  NEW  PETITIONS  TO  PARLIAMENT. 

"  Doctor  Dromgoole  moved  that  a  committee  be  appointed  to  pre- 
pare the  petitions  to  the  legislature,  resolved  on  by  the  late  aggregate 
meeting. 

"  Mr.  Roche  said  a  hint  had  been  thrown  out  at  that  meeting,  of 
the  propriety  of  the  Catholics  themselves  preparing  a  bill.  He  ap- 
proved of  it. 


410  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  agreed  witli  the  last  speaker.  He  thought  the 
draft  of  a  bill  should  be  offered  to  the  parliamentary  friends  of  the 
Catholics,  requesting  them  to  present  it. 

"  The  following  gentlemen  were  then  named  as  the  committee  to 
prepare  the  petitions. 

"  Mr.  O'Gorman,  Major  Bryau, 

Mr.  Scully,  Mr.  Finn, 

Dr.  Sheridan,  Doctor  Dromgoole, 

Mr.  O'ConneU,  Mr.  Taaffe, 

Mr.  Fitzsimon,  Mr.  M'Carthy. 


Mr.  Kennedy, 


EARL  DONOUGHMORE. 


"  The  secretary  read  the  notice  given  by  Mr.  N.  Mahon,  of  a  motion 
to  thank  Lord  Donoughmore  for  his  communication,  and  acquiescing 
in  the  advice  given  therein. 

"  Mr.  Mahon  not  being  at  the  board,  Major  Bryan  believed  the 
regular  way  would  be  to  discharge  the  motion. 

"  Mr.  Costigan  thought  it  was  a  motion  which  the  board  should 
adopt. 

''  Doctor  Dromgoole  was  of  the  same  opinion,  and  from  respect  for 
Mr.  M.  moved  the  postponement  of  it  till  Saturday  next. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  would  thank  his  lordship,  with  all  his  soul,  but 
was  for  presenting  the  petition.  In  order  to  separate  the  subjects,  he 
gave  notice  of  a  motion  for  a  vote  of  thanks  generally. 

"AGGREGATE  MEETING. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  conceiving  that  Tuesday  sen'night  would  be  too 
soon  for  the  aggregate  meeting,  entered  notice  of  a  motion  for  its 
postponement.     Adjourned." 

"  'Address  of  the  General  Board  of  the  Catholics  of  Ireland,  to  the  Catholic 
population  at  large,  as  read  at  the  Catholic  board  on  Saturday  last. 

"'Beloved  fellow-countrymen,  and  fellow-sufferers — The  general  board  of 
the  Catholics  of  Ireland,  to  wliose  care  you  have  confided  the  conduct  of  your 
petitions  to  the  legislature  for  relief,  deem  it  prudent,  at  this  critical  juncture, 
to  lay  before  you  certain  cousiderations,  seriously  interesting  to  our  common 
security  and  welfare. 

"  'As  the  chosen  depositories  of  our  claims  and  expectations,  we  have  been- 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,   M.P.  411 

solicitous,  at  all  times,  and  under  every  discouragement,  to  justify  your 
conlidence  by  a  firm  and  faitliful  discharge  of  our  solemn  duty  towards 
Ireland ;  and,  however  ardently  engaged  in  soliciting  the  restoration  of 
religious  freedom,  we  have  nevei-  infringed  the  limits  of  the  law,  or  been  unmind- 
ful of  what  is  due  to  the  peace  and  good  character  of  the  country. 

"'We  have  encountered  many  difficulties  and  much  obloquy — these  had 
been  foreseen  ;  the  former  we  have  nearly  surmounted — the  latter  we  have 
wholly  disregarded.  The  worst  of  human  passions  and  vices  have  been 
arrayed  against  us,  but  with  little  effect.  Monopoly,  assuming  the  mask  of 
religion,  presented  a  host  of  selfish  and  hypocritica;l  opponents ;  these  have 
been  discomfited  with  ridicule  and  reprobation.  Ignorance,  starting  from  the 
lethargy  of  ages,  frowned  upon  the  advocates  of  enlightened  i)olicy,  and 
menaced  the  extinction  of  our  legitimate  hopes ;  her  influence  has  vanished 
like  the  pestilential  vapour  before  the  advancing  light  of  heaven.  Sectarian 
jealousy,  national  prejudices,  have  been  stimulated  against  the  freedom  of  Irish 
Catholics;  these  have  been  permitted  to  wanton  in  shameful  and  savage 
licence ;  but  they  have  finally  fallen  beneath  the  pressure  of  justice  and 
reason . 

' '  '  The  moment  has  arrived  when  the  cause  of  Catholic  freedom  rests  almost 
solely  upon  Catholic  firmness,  prudence,  and  circumspection  ;  our  enemies  have 
failed  in  their  attempts  to  obstruct  our  petitions,  or  to  stifle  the  discussion  of 
our  just  complaints  ;  worsted  in  argument,  prostrate  before  public  abhorrence, 
they  have  resorted  to  wicked  machinations  for  traducing  our  conduct,  character, 
and  principles.  Forgeries  a,nd  fabrications  have  become  their  weapons  of  con- 
troversy. They  have  not  been  ashamed  to  invent  and  to  circulate  in  your 
name,  tlic  vilest  publications,  calculated  to  delude  and  impose  upon  your 
Protestant  fellow-subjects,  to  create  jealousy  and  hatred,  and  to  criminate  the 
Catholics  of  Ireland  by  imputations  equally  false,  impudent,  and  atrocious. 
These  crimes  of  traitorous  malignity  have  been,  strange  to  tell,  perpetrated  with 
impunity. 

' '  '  These  devices  have,  however,  wholly  failed,  or  enjoyed  a  mere  temporary 
triumph — they  have  been  detected  and  despised. 

"  'Fellow-countrymen,  a  new  danger  now  impends  over  our  abused  country, 
and  a  new  mode  of  hostility  is  developed  ;  of  this  we  are  about  to  warn  you  ;  our 
enemies  seek  to  irritate  our  passions,  and  to  betray  us  into  imprudent  resent- 
ments. Restless  and  desperate,  they  have  undertaken  to  provoke,  or  to  seduce 
the  Catholic  body  to  violence  and  insurrection.  We  know  that  local  agents  are 
busy,  and  venal  emissaries  are  abroad.  These  miscreants  will  resort  to  your 
meetings,  your  clubs,  and  your  public  places ;  they  will  insinuate  themselves 
into' your  confidence  by  counterfeit  zeal,  by  daring  language,  by  affected 
warmtli  and  concern  for  your  sufferings.  They  will  suggest  secret  oaths  and 
engagements,  propose  illegal  associations,  circulate  wild  and  improbable 
rumours  of  plots  and  conspiracies,  recommend  and  predict  rash  and  ruinous 
hostilities.  Fellow-countrymen,  behold  a  deep-laid  and  diabolical  plot  now  in 
actual  progress  ;  constructed,  not  merely  for  defeating  Catholic  freedom,  but 
for  involving  our  beloved  country  in  massacre,  desolation,  .and  ruin.  Be  now, 
more  than  ever,  vigilantly  upon  your  guard.     We  entreat  and  conjure  you,  as 


412  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

you  value  your  families,  your  country,  and  your  religion,  to  shun  the  vile 
instruments  of  this  nefarious  policy — to  beware  of  their  fatal  snares  and 
seductions. 

' ' '  How,  indeed,  can  the  insidious  foe  hope  to  persuade  us,  that  the  Catholic 
cause  requires  any  infraction  of  the  laws,  or  any  disturbance  of  the  public 
peace?  The  avenue  to  success  is  yet  open;  the  constitution  points  it  out;  it 
lies  through  petitions  to  the  legislature,  to  Eong,  Lords,  and  Commons.  Let 
us  then  petition — petition  from  every  town,  village,  and  parish,  without 
exception  ;  let  every  man,  every  woman,  every  cliild,  subscribe  such  petitions  ; 
no  name  is  so  humble  as  not  to  be  useful ;  this  is  the  interest  of  all — this  should 
be  the  business  of  all ;  persevere,  and  be  not  deterred  or  dissuaded  ;  slumber  not 
over  your  deep  wrongs ;  let  persecution  be  exposed  to  notoriety,  and  let  your  just 
complaints  resound  throughout  Christendom ! 

' '  '  Leave  the  rest  to  events,  to  the  legislature,  and  to  Providence  ;  our  cause 
is  good,  and  favoured  from  above  ;  it  is  in  faithful  hands  ;  let  us  be,  therefore, 
confident  and  strenuous. 

"  '  In  the  meantime,  fellow-countrymen,  let  us  preserve  oiir  habits  of 
industry,  domestic  miion,  good  morals,  allegiance  and  religion.  Let  us  instruct 
our  children  in  useful  knowledge,  instil  into  their  hearts  a  love  of  virtue,  of 
freedom,  of  their  country,  and  of  the  faith  of  their  ancestors.  Place  before  their 
eyes  the  dignified  example  of ' '  men,  who  know  their  rights,  and  knowing,  dare 
maintain !" 

"  '  Yet  steady  and  immovable  in  the  paths  of  righteousness,  order,  and 
good  will. 

"  'Thus  shall  you  speedily  disappoint  the  fond  speculations  of  malignant  and 
besotted  foes ! 

* '  '  Thus  also  shall  you  gladden  the  hearts  of  your  faithful  and  enlightened 
friends,  justify  their  regard,  and  requite  their  unabating  labours  for  your 
happiness. 

"  '  May  genuine  freedom  crown  a  virtuous  perseverance  with  her  rich 
rewards ;  and  may  we  all  enjoy  in  security,  as  we  shall  have  earned  through 
peril,  the  precious  blessing  of  concord,  internal  peace,  and  constitutional  inde- 
pendence !' " 

"  Letters  from  Charles  Butler  were  read  at  the  next  meeting 
of  the  board,  (on  the  20th  of  June,  Sir  Thomas  Esraonde  in  the 
chair)  accounting  for,  and  seeking  to  explain,  his  interviews  with 
Lord  Castlereagh. 

He  declared  that  in  these  interviews  he  had  not  intended  nor 
affected  to  implicate  the  Catholics  of  either  country,  nor  any 
one  but  himself,  in  the  opinions  he  there  uttered. 

That  in  the  original  sketch  of  a  bill  prepared  by  him  a  year 
and  a  half  before,  at  the  instance  and  recommendation  *'  of  one 
of  the   most    steady    and   active    friends    of  the    Catholics   in 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,  M.P.  413 

parliament,"  and  afterwards  solicited  from  him  by  Henry 
Grattan,  the  entire  rights  of  the  Catholics  were  insisted 
upon,  and  "  not  the  slightest  right  given  to  government  to 
interfere  in  our  ecclesiastical  concerns,  in  any  form  or  manner 
whatsoever." 

That  he  had,  two  or  three  times,  held  communication,  by 
letter,  with  Mr.  Scully  upon  the  subject,  and  had  endeavoured 
to  avail  himself  of  that  gentleman's  suggestions  and  observations. 

Upon  these  letters  Mr,  Scully  briefly  remarked. 

He  said  that  his  answer  to  Mr.  Butler's  communications  had 
been  dated  the  3rd  of  February,  in  the  current  year  (1813),  and 
was  to  the  following  effect : — "  That  he  would  strongly  recom- 
mend to  him  to  discontinue  his  interviews  with  any  members  of 
the  administration  upon,  the  affairs  of  the  Catholics  of  Ireland — 
that  he  disapproved  of  several  passages  in  the  letters — replied 
to  objections  on  the  score  of  the  tone  of  the  Catholic  petition — 
stated  that  the  Irish  Catholics  were  never  so  strong  as  they 
were  at  that  moment,  for  they  were  never  so  unanimous  and 
determined,  and  were  guiltless  of  intemperance  on  the  one  hand, 
as  of  want  of  energy  and  determination  on  the  other,"  &c.,  &c. 

Another  letter  was  then  read,  written  by  Mr.  Butler  to  Sir 
John  Cox  Hippisley,  in  December,  1812,  in  which,  amongst 
other  things,  the  writer  blamed  the  resolutions  of  the  Irish 
prelates,  principally  for  "  their  rejection,  by  anticipation,  of  all 
arrangements  respecting  them  !" 

He  declared  their  resolution  "  very  improper  (! ) — not  called 
for — calculated  to  disgust  friends,  and  furnish  arms  to  enemies." 

This  species  of  cant  we  are  not  altogether  unaccustomed 
to  in  the  present  day,  whenever  any  bold  step  is  taken  in  the 
popular  movement. 

Its  true  meaning,  in  the  present  day,  as  at  the  time  Mr. 
Butler  used  it,  and  on  all  the  many  occasions  that  it  has  been 
repeated  in  the  interval,  is,  that  such  steps  are  very  inconvenient 
and  embarrassing  to  those  who  desire  to  seduce,  pervert,  and 
corrupt  the  public  mind, 

"  I  beheve,  too,"  continued  Mr.  Butler,  in  the  same  strain, 
"  that  some   speeches   in    Ireland   have  disgusted  our  friends 


414  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

I  think  the  English  Catholics  should, 

for  this  once,  lead  the  way  /"  &c.,  &c. 

His  sugg-estion  was  not  taken,  very  fortunately  for  the 
English  Catholics  themselves.  Had  the  Emancipation  struggle 
been  led  by  them,  generations  yet  to  come  would  be  engaged 
in  it. 

The  production  of  these  letters  had  been  occasioned  by  a 
charge  made  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Board,  Mr.  Edward  Hay, 
against  Mr.  Butler,  to  the  effect  that  the  latter  had  written 
disrespectfully  about  Lord  Fingal.  Mr.  Hay  did  not  now 
endeavour  to  support  the  charge,  but  read  a  short  note  from  Mr. 
Grattan,  asking  for  the  letters,  and  said  that  he  himself  had 
accordingly  written  to  Mr  O'Connell,  "  requesting  copies  of  the 
letters;  but  Mr.  O'Connell  had  not  vouchsafed  an  answer." 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  said  he  had  not  felt  himself  at  liberty  to  send 
those  letters  which  Mr.  Butler  said  he  had  considered  private ;  and 
as  to  the  imputed  discourtesy,  the  fact  was,  that  he  had  received  Mr. 
Hay's  letter  but  two  days  before  he  left  town  for  circuit,  and  at  a 
period  when  the  pressure  of  professional  business  deprived  him  of  any 
possibility  of  corresponding  with  any  person. 

"  Besides,  if  Mr.  Grattan  had  occasion  to  see  documents  in  his 
possession,  he  really  did  think,  that  respected  gentleman  might  have 
condescended  to  ask  for  them  himself,  and  not  through  the  medium 
of  Mr.  Hay. 

"  It  was  no  trivial  impulse  of  vanity  which  induced  this  feeling  ; 
but,  in  fact,  it  appeared  that  there  was  the  most  studied  and  marked 
neglect  of  the  sentiments  and  opinions  of  the  Irish  Catholics  during 
the  last  session.  Neglect !  It  actually  showed  a  contempt  for  them 
which,  if  they  bore  in  silent  acquiescence,  they  would  prove  they 
merited.     See  how  the  facts  were — 

"  First,  a  bill,  purporting  to  be  for  their  relief,  had  been  prepared 
in  Dublin,  under  the  auspices  of  Mr.  Grattan,  by  three  gentlemen  of 
the  bar  ;  but  so  far  from  any  Catholic  having  been  consulted  on  that 
occasion,  that  even  the  preparation  of  the  bill  here  was,  for  the 'time, 
considered  as  too  important  a  secret  to  be  confided  to  any  Catholic 
whatsoever !  It  was  our  case  that  was  to  be  brought  before  parlia- 
ment, and  yet  the  mode  of  relief  was  conceived  to  be  beyond  the 
reach  of  our  understandings  ! 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,     ESQ.,    M.P.  415 

"  The  second  instance  of  this  disrespectful  conduct  was  apparent  in 
the  treatment  which  our  delegates  had  received  in  London.  Every 
communication  with  them  was  declined.  So  far  were  they  from 
being  consulted  upon  any  details  of  the  Relief  BiU,  that  their 
offer  of  assistance  was  rejected,  with  civility  to  be  sure,  but  very 
distinctly. 

"  The  thii'd  proof  of  the  low  estimate  which  our  parliamentary 
advocates  formed  of  us,  was  found  in  the  fact,  that  whilst  aU  the 
members  of  the  board  and  of  the  Catholic  body  in  Ireland  were 
neglected,  whilst  our  delegates  in  London  were  disregarded,  it 
appeared,  from  Mr.  Butler's  lettei'S,  that  English  Catholics  were  not 
only  consulted,  but  that  their  advice  and  assistance  were  anxiously 
sought  for  and  required  by  Mi-.  Grattan  and  our  other  advocates  ! 

"  No  man  can  be  more  sensible  than  I  am  of  the  splendid  talents, 
and  more  splendid  patriotism  of  Mr.  Grattan  ;  but  a  more  humble 
friend  may  be  more  useful.  It  was  impossible  to  emancipate  the 
Catholics,  unless  they  were  consulted  upon  the  details  of  the  practical 
modes  of  procuring  relief.  If  Mr.  Grattan  would  not  condescend  to 
consult  the  Irish  Catholics,  they  were  bound  to  have  their  petition 
presented  by  a  person  who  would  enter  into  those  details  with  them  ; 
and  much  as  I  should  regret  the  loss  of  even  the  name  of  Grattan,  as 
the  person  who  was  actually  to  present  our  next  petition,  I  cannot 
help  saying  that  if  some  arrangement  be  not  made  with  him,  and 
some  fixed  manner  of  communicating  our  sentiments  settled — if,  in 
short,  he  is  pleased  again  to  reject  all  intercourse  with  us,  it  will  be 
a  painful  but  a  solemn  duty  to  Ireland,  to  consider  whether  it  would 
not  be  more  useful  to  our  great  cause  to  place  our  petition  in  the 
hands  of  some  man,  who  will  cheerfully  hold  the  requisite  commu- 
nication and  intercoui'se. 

"  Such  a  man  should  most  certainly  have  his  humble  vote,  and  all 
the  interest  he  could  exert  to  secure  his  selection,  even  though  the 
rival  candidate  bore  the  illustrious  name  of  Henry  Grattan.  (Cheers.) 

''  Mr.  O'Connor  passed  a  eulogy  upon  Mr.  Grattan. 

"Mr.  Bagot  rose  for  a  similar  purpose,  and  called  it  'hasty,'  to 
remark  upon  Mr.  Grattan,  as  Mr.  O'Connell  had  done.  The  former 
might  have  merely  consulted  Mr.  Butler  on  a  professional  view  of 
^he  relief  measure. 

*'  Mr.  O'Connell  said  that  his  '  hastiness'  consisted  simply  in  taking 
the  word  of  Mr.  Butler  for  the,  fact,  that  the  latter  tvas  called  upon  by 
Mr.  Grattan  to  prepare  the  bill. 


416  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

"  If  it  had  been  merely  a  professional  opinion  that  was  requii-ed, 
would  it  not  have  been  better  to  have  consulted  an  Irish  barrister  ? 

"  This  was  not  the  time  to  consider  whether  Mr.  Grattan  should 
present  another  petition  or  not.  When  the  proper  time  arrived,  he 
might  alter  his  opinion,  although  he  did  not  think  he  should.  He 
repeated,  that  when  Mr.  Grattan  was  about  to  legislate  for  Irish 
Catholics,  it  would  have  been  more  natural  to  consult  Irishmen  than 
Englishmen.  If,  however,  that  gentleman  chose  to  refuse  to  do  so, 
he  had,  of  course,  a  perfect  right  to  act  as  he  pleased  ;  and  so,  in  their 
turn,  had  the  Irish  Catholics.  He  liked  Mr.  Grattan  much,  but  he 
liked  Ireland  more ! 

"  The  matter  was  dropped ;  and  the  board  proceeded  to  consider 
the  new  petition,  which  was  brought  forward  by  Mr.  O'Connell." 

The  Dublin  Evening  Post  thus  introduced  it,  in  its  report  of 
the  day's  proceedings : — 

"  PETITION  OF  THE  ROMAN  CATHOLICS  OF  IRELAND. 

*'  "We  present  this  day,  exclusively,  the  new  petition  of  the  Catholic 
population  to  the  Imperial  Parliament. 

"  It  is  a  most  splendid  and  solemn  document,  speaking  in  a  tone 
so  argumentative  and  so  simple,  that  even  bigotry  must  admire  and 
apostasy  feel  it.  It  was  read,  on  Saturday  last,  at  the  Catholic 
board,  by  Mr.  O'Connell,  who  was  frequently  interrupted  by  ap- 
plause, and  cheered  at  his  conclusion  with  the  most  rapturous 
enthusiasm. 

"  We  have  no  doubt  that  it  will  be  adopted  with  one  voice  through- 
out Ireland. 

"  '  To  THE  Honourable  the  Hoctse  of  Commons  in  Parliament 

ASSEMBLED. 

"  '  We  the  Roman  Catholic  people  of  Ireland,  again  approach  the  legislature 
with  a  statement  of  the  grievances  under  which  we  labour,  and  of  which  we 
most  respectfully,  but  at  the  same  time,  most  firmly,  solicit  the  eflfectual 
redress. 

"  '  Our  wrongs  are  so  notorious,  and  so  numerous,  that  their  minute  detail 
is  quite  unnecessary,  and  would,  indeed,  be  impossible,  were  it  deemed  expe- 
dient. 

"  '  Ages  of  persecution  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  patience  on  the  other,  suffi- 
ciently attest  our  sufferings  and  our  submission.  Privations  have  been  answered 
only  by  petition — indignities  hy  remonstrances — injuries  by  forgiveness.     It 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  417 

has  been  a  misfortune  to  have  suft'ered  for  the  sake  of  our  religion  ;  but  it  has 
also  been  a  pride  to  have  borne  the  best  testimony  to  the  purity  of  our  doctrine 
by  the  meekness  of  our  endurance.  Like  the  great  type  of  our  adoration,  we 
have  not  merely  been  the  passive  victims  of  unjust  infliction,  but  we  have  even 
endeavoured  to  expiate  the  cruelty  of  our  oppressors.  We  have  sustained  the 
power  which  spurned  us ;  we  have  nerved  the  arm  that  smote  us ;  with  a  grati- 
tude always  superior  to  our  privileges,  we  have  lavished  our  strength,  our 
talent,  and  our  treasures,  and  buoyed  upon  the  prodigal  effusion  of  our  young 
blood  the  triumphant  ark  of  British  liberty. 

"' "We  approach,  then,  with  confidence,  an  enlightened  legislature.  In  the 
name  of  nature,  we  ask  our  rights  as  men.  In  the  name  of  the  constitution,  we 
ask  our  privileges  as  subjects.  In  the  name  of  God,  we  ask  the  sacred  charter 
of  unpersecuted  piety  as  Christians. 

"  'Are  securities  required  of  us ! !  We  offer  them — the  best  securities  a 
throne  can  have — the  affections  of  a  people.  We  offer  faith  that  was  never 
violated — hearts  that  were  never  corrupted — valour  that  never  crouched. 
Every  hour  of  peril  has  proved  our  allegiance,  and  every  field  of  Europe  exhibits 
its  example. 

"  'We  abjure  all  temporal  authority,  except  that  of  our  sovereign.  We 
acknowledge  no  civil  tie,  save  that  of  our  constitution  ;  and,  for  our  lavish  and 
voluntary  expenditure,  we  only  ask  a  reciprocity  of  benefits. 

"  '  Separating,  as  we  do  our  civil  rights  from  our  spiritual  duties,  we  ear- 
nestly desire  that  they  may  not  be  confounded.  We  "  render  unto  Cfesar  the 
the  things  that  are  Cesar's;"  but  we  must  also  "render  unto  God  the  things 
that  are  God's."  Our  church  could  not  descend  to  claim  a  state  authority ;  nor 
do  we  ask  for  it  a  state  aggrandisement;  its  hopes,  its  powers,  and  its  preten- 
sions are  of  another  world  ;  and  when  we  raise  our  hands  to  the  state,  our 
prayer  is  not  that  the  fetters  may  be  transferred  to  those  hands  which  are 
raised  for  us  to  heaven.  We  would  not  erect  a  splendid  shrine,  even  to  liberty, 
on  the  ruins  of  the  temple. 

"  '  In  behalf,  then,  of  five  millions  of  a  brave  and  insulted  people,  we  call 
on  the  legislature  to  annihilate  the  odious  bondage  which  bows  down  the  mental, 
physical,  and  moral  energies  of  Ireland  ;  and,  in  the  name  of  that  Gospel  which 
excludes  all  distinction,  we  ask  freedom  of  conscience  for  the  whole 
Christian  world.' 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  having  read  the  petition,  it  was  received  with 
three  distinct  peals  of  applause  from  all  parts  of  the  house,  which 
were  returned  by  the  multitude  from  without. 

"  Mr.  O'Connor  begged  to  know,  who  the  author  of  so  beautiful  a 
composition  was ;  he  ought  to  be  known,  that  his  country  may  give 
him  the  only  reward  she  could  bestow — her  cordial  gratitude. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  said  that  he  was  able  to  give  the  board  that 
information,  and  he  was  proud  to  claim  the  author  as  his  particular 
friend.  He  was  a  gentleman  of  the  bar,  a  Protestant,  and  an  un- 
doubted friend  to  every  civil  and  religious  liberty  ;   he  was  a  youth 

2  E 


418  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

whose  young  heart  beat  high  in  the  cause  of  Irish  freedom,  and 
whose  darling  ambition  was,  to  serve  and  to  exalt  his  fallen  country  ; 
his  muse  had  already  adorned  his  native  land,  and,  in  his  first 
exertions,  the  promise  of  his  future  services  was  lively,  consolatory, 
and  certain.  His  poetic  fancy  had  proved  itself  rich  in  the  en- 
thusiasm for  his  country,  that  inspired  and  ennobled  the  song  of  her 
ancient  bards ;  and  never  did  the  soul  of  Irish  chief  or  patriot 
burn  with  a  flame  more  permanent — more  pure  in  his  affection  for 
Ireland.  In  the  hour  of  oiu*  calamity  and  of  our  fallen  fortunes,  he 
has  arisen  a  new  and  splendid  light  amongst  us,  to  cheer  and  to 
invigorate  our  pursuit  of  freedom  ;  and  in  the  early  stage  of  youth, 
he  exhibits  those  qualifications  which  will  render  him  familiar 
to  the  Irish  ear,  and  dear  to  the  Irish  heart  ;  the  name  of  my 
amiable  friend,  the  author  of  '  The  Emerald  Isle,'  is  Charles  Phillips." 
(Loud  and  repeated  cheering.) 

Mr.  O'Connor  then  moved — 

"  That  the  heartfelt  gratitude  of  the  Catholic  board  be  presented  to  the 
splendid  and  patriotic  friend  of  Ireland,  Charles  Phillips,  Esq.,  Barrister-at-Law, 
for  the  exertions  by  which  he  has  served  and  ornamented  the  cause  of  our 
common  country." 

On  the  succeeding  Monday,  the  subject  of  a  vote  of  thanks 
to  Lord  Donoughmore,  and  acquiescence  in  his  advice  to 
suspend  all  proceedings  in  the  House  of  Lords  for  that  year  on 
the  Catholic  question,  was  pressed  on  the  committee  by  Mr. 
Mahon. 

Mr.  O'Connell  moved  an  amendment  to  this  motion,  to  the 
effect  of  thanking  Lord  Donoughmore  generally  for  his  splendid 
services,  but  entirely  refusing  to  bind  the  board  to  the  adoption 
of  his  advice,  not  to  press  the  discussion  of  the  Catholic  claims 
in  the  Upper  House  during  the  current  session. 

We  have  not  been  able  to  find  any  report  of  this  speech  ; 
but  it  is  described  by  the  newspapers  as  having  been  very 
animated.  A  strong  body,  however,  led  by  Dr.  Dromgoole, 
supported  the  original  motion,  which  was  carried  upon  a  division 
of  14  to  10. 

Upon  Tuesday,  the  29th  of  June,  at  another  aggregate 
meeting,  in  Fishamble-street,  a  letter,  couched  in  warm  terms 
of  thanks  and  respect,  was  read  from  Dr.  Milner,  in  acknow- 


DANIEL    o'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.V.  419 

ledgment  of  the  vote  passed  in  his  favour  at  the  last  aggregate 
meeting. 

The  Cathohc  petition,  as  read  and  adopted  at  the  board 
on  Saturday,  was  brought  forward,  and  formally  adopted 
here. 

Mr.  Mahon  moved — 

"  That  the  Catholic  board  be  instructed  to  cause  the  petitions  to  be  pre- 
sented to  both  houses  of  parliament,  at  the  earliest  period  of  the  next  sessions." 

Mr.  Scully  supported  the  motion  in  a  lengthened  and  able 
address,  reviewing  the  whole  progress  of  the  cause,  and  the 
arguments  and  attacks  of  various  kinds  used  against  it  and  its 
promoters. 

His  speech  was  very  warmly  applauded,  as  was  also  one 
of  equal  ability  from  Mr.  Finlay. 

It  then  came  to  Mr.  O'Connell's  turn  to  speak. 

"  The  talent  (said  he)  which  has  been  displayed  this  day  by  my 
excellent  friends  who  have  preceded  me  in  addressing  you,  affords 
the  sure  resource  in  our  difficulties — the  certain  pledge  of  our  suc- 
cess. I  cannot  imitate  the  eloquence  which  I  admire,  and  I  rise 
merely  to  propose,  with  as  little  preface  as  possible,  two  or  three 
I'esolutions  for  your  consideration,  and,  I  hope,  for  your  adoption.  I 
beg  leave,  in  the  fisrt  place,  to  move — 

"  '  That  Mr.  Scully  be  requested  to  take  the  trouble  of  giving  to  the  public, 
in  print,  a  correct  copy  of  the  admirable  speech  which  he  has  delivered  this 
day.' 

"  Major  Bryan  seconded  the  motion,  which  was  put  from  the  chair, 
and  carried  by  acclamation. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  proceeded :  now,  let  me  return  you,  in  one  word, 
the  thanks  of  my  heart  for  the  kindness  with  which  you  have  this 
day  received  me.  I  am  proud  of  the  kindness  of  my  fellow-country- 
men. It  is  the  only  reward  I  would  accept,  as  it  is  the  only  one  I 
seek ;  but  it  is  a  rich  recompense !  It  consoles  and  compensates  me 
for  the  slanders  and  malignity  of  those  who  are  my  enemies,  only 
because  they  are  your  oppressors ! 

"  Nay,  in  their  enmity,  too,  I  feel  comfort  and  delight.  I  rejoice 
to  have  earned  their  hostility  ;  and  I  shall  deem  lightly  of  myself — 
most  lightly,  if  the  hour  shall  ever  arrive,  when  the  men,  Avho  enrich 


420  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

themselves  and  fatten  themselves  by  the  degradation  and  enslavement 
of  Ireland,  shall  treat  me  with  favour,  or  even  with  neutrality. 

"  I  complain  not  of  tlieir  calumnies  ;  1  exult  in  them.  I  have 
laslied  the  bigot  and  the  tyrant ;  I  have  exposed  the  infamy  of  those 
hypocritical  pretenders  to  sanctity,  who,  in  the  name  of  God,  plunder 
and  oppress  unhappy  Ireland  ! — the  men  who  discount  their  con- 
sciences and  obtain  money  by  their  pretensions  to  piety — men,  whom 
I  need  not  name,  because  you  know  them  at  once  by  description. 

"  These  men  calumniate  me,  when  it  is  quite  safe  so  to  do,  in  my 
absence.  I  exult  in  deserving  their  hatred ;  I  rejoice  at  their  ex- 
ertions, which  only  prove  that  I  have,  in  some  measure,  revenged  my 
country  upon  them.  I  court  their  bitterest  hostility ;  all  I  deprecate 
is,  their  forbearance  or  their  favour. 

"  Your  enemies  say — and  let  them  say  it — that  I  wish  for  a 
separation  between  England  and  Ireland.  The  charge  is  false  ;  it  is, 
to  use  a  modern  quotation,  as  '  false  as  hell !'  And  the  men  who 
originated,  and  those  who  seek  to  inculcate  it,  know  it  to  be  a  false- 
hood. There  lives  not  a  man  less  desirous  of  a  separation  between 
the  two  countries — there  lives  not  a  man  more  deeply  convinced,  that 
the  connection  between  them,  established  upon  the  basis  of  one  king 
and  separate  parliaments,  would  be  of  the  utmost  value  to  the  peace 
and  happiness  of  both  countries,  and  to  the  liberties  of  the  civilized 
world. 

"  Next,  your  enemies  accuse  me  of  a  desire  for  the  independence 
of  Ireland.  I  admit  the  charge,  and  let  them  make  the  most  of  it. 
I  have  seen  Ireland  a  kingdom  ;  I  reproach  myself  with  having 
lived  to  behold  her  a  pi'ovince!  Yes,  I  confess  it — I  will  ever  be 
candid  upon  the  subject — I  have  an  ulterior  object — 

"  The  Repeal  oe  the  Union,  and  the  restoration  to  old 
Ireland  of  her  independence.  (Loud  and  repeated  cheering,  and 
acclamations  for  several  minutes.) 

"  I  am  told  that  it  is  indiscreet  to  avow  this  intention.  It  may  be 
so ;  but  in  public  affairs,  discretion  may  easily  pass  into  dissimula- 
tion, and  I  will  not  be  guilty  of  it.  And  if  to  repeal  the  Union  be 
the  first  service  that  can  be  rendered  to  Ireland,  as  it  clearly  is, 
I,  for  one,  most  readily  and  heartily  offer  to  postpone  our  Emancipa- 
tion, in  order  to  promote  the  cause  of  our  country.  (Loud  cheering.) 

"  But  let  me  not  be  mistaken.  It  is  true,  as  I  declare,  that  I  desire 
the  restoration  of  our  Irish  parliament ;  I  would  sacrifice  my  ex- 
istence  to  restore   to    Ireland  her  independent   legislature ;    but   I 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,  M.P.  421 

do  not  desire  to  restore  precisely  such  a  parliament  as  she  had 
before.  No  :  the  act  of  restoration  necessarily  implies  a  reformation, 
which  would  for  ever  abolish  the  ridiculous,  but  most  criminal  traffic 
in  the  representative  privileges.  The  new  Irish  legislature  would^ 
of  course,  be  purged  of  all  the  close  boroughs.  The  right  to  nominate 
to  parliament  should  no  longer  be  a  matter  of  traffic,  or  of  family 
arrangement ;  it  should  not  be,  as  it  is  at  present,  private  property ; 
so  much  so,  that  I  could  name  to  you  a  borough  in  which  a  seat  in 
parliament  is  vested  by  regular  marriage  settlement.  I  could  tell 
you  the  date  and  number  of  the  registry,  in  which  a  judge  of  the  land 
and  a  country  gentleman,  are  trustees  to  raise  money  upon  it,  for 
the  benelit  of  the  younger  children  of  a  baronet ;  this  traffic — this 
most  odious  and  disgusting  traffic,  should  be  abolished  at  once  and  for 
ever,  were  our  parliament  restored  to  us.  (Cheers.) 

"  Desiring  as  I  do  the  Repeal  of  the  Union,  I  rejoice  to  see  how 
our  enemies  promote  that  great  object.  Yes,  they  promote  its  inevi- 
table success  by  their  very  hostility  to  Ireland  ;  they  delay  the  liber- 
ties of  the  Catholic,  but  they  compensate  us  most  amply,  because  they 
advance  the  restoration  of  Ireland;  by  leaviny  one  cause  of  agitation, 
they  have  created  and  they  will  embody  and  give  shape  and  form  to 
a  public  mind  and  a  public  spirit." 

[Was  there  nothing  of  prophecy  in  this?  Have  not  Whig 
and  Tory  statesmen  been  compelled  to  bear  bitter  evidence  to 
the  truth  of  it  many  and  many  a  time  within  recent  recollection.] 

"  Ireland  lay  in  torpor  till  roused  by  the  call  for  religious  liberty. 
She  would,  I  fear  and  I  am  convinced,  have  relapsed  into  apathy  if 
liberty  of  conscience  had  been  speedily  conceded.  Let  them  delay 
Emancipation  but  yet  a  little  while,  and  they  will  find  that  they  have 
roused  the  sleeping  lion  of  Ireland  to  awaking  activity,  whicJi  will 
not  permit  our  further  slumber  till  Ireland  is  herself  again.  (Loud 
applause.)  They  may  still,  perchance,  think  of  administering  the 
narcotic  of  religious  freedom,  which  may  tend  to  re-establish  political 
lethargy  ;  but  only  let  them  allow  our  discussions  to  continue,  let 
them  suffer  our  agitators  to  pi'oceed — let  the  love  of  country  and 
even  the  desire  of  notoriety  be  permitted  to  excite  fresh  agitators, 
and,  above  all,  let  the  popular  mind  become  accustomed  to  the 
consideration  of  public  subjects  and  to  the  vehemence  of  political 
contest,  and  they  know  nothing  of  human  nature  who  imagine  thai 


422  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

they  can,  with  a  breath,  still  the  tempest  that  they  shall  have  thus 
excited,  or  be  able  to  quiet  a  people  whom  they  shall  have  roused 
to  a  sense  of  their  wrongs,  and  to  a  knowledge  of  their  own  strength 
and  importance !" 

We  cannot  help  pausing  again  to  make  one  other  remark. 
Mr.  O'Connell  has  long  been  made  the  object  of  most  bitter 
revilings  by  the  English  press  and  English  orators  of  every 
shade  of  party,  for  embarking  in  a  new  agitation  after  the 
Catholic  Relief  Act  had  been  conceded ;  yet  in  this  speech,  and 
others  at  various  periods  of  the  Catholic  struggle,  he  fully  and 
fairly  warned  England  of  the  dangers  of  delay,  and  if  his  warn- 
ings were  unheeded  and  his  counsels  scorned,  the  English  have 
but  to  blame  themselves  for  the  annoyances  which  they  complain 
of  from  the  sustained  and  continued  political  agitation  in 
Ireland. 

It  is  of  a  piece  with  the  general  unfairness  which  English  writers 
and  speakers,  pandering  to  the  passions  and  prejudices  of  their 
readers  and  hearers,  have  uniformly  displayed,  in  dealing  with 
the  striking  manifestations  within  the  last  few  years  of  the  strong 
and  resolute  desire  of  the  Irish  people  for  their  nationality,  that 
Mr.  O'Connell  should  be  denied  the  credit  he  is  most  justly 
entitled  to — of  never  having  disguised  his  great  object,  never 
having  let  pass  an  occasion  of  announcing  it,  and  while  announc- 
ing it,  showing  plainly  and  putting  strongly  in  view  the  means 
by  which  alone  he  could  be  defeated,  by  which  alone  the  mighty 
national  confederation  he  has  now  organized  could  be  prevented, 
or  at  least  postponed,  and  the  Irish  people  be  got  to  sit  down 
patient  for  perhaps  some  generations  longer  with  the  provincial 
degradation  of  their  country. 

Concession  and  conciliation  to  the  Catholics — justice  to  Ire- 
land ;  these  he  has  constantly  and  unremittingly  held  out,  at 
every  step  of  his  career  and  every  period  of  the  popular  agita- 
tion, as  the  means  of  which  alone  such  a  result  could  be  obtained, 
and  by  which  it  might,  without  much  difficulty,  have  so  been ; 
but  his  warnings,  suggestions,  remonstrances  have,  throughout, 
been  unheeded  and  despised  ;  the  national  will  and  the  national 
heart  were  allowed  to  gather  strength  and  courage  unimpeded 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  423 

and  unseduced,  and  now  he  has  the  consolation  of  believing 
and  knowing,  that  not  even  concession  of  minor  rights  and 
privileges  can  ever  again  obstruct  or  delay  the  full  and  entire 
attainment  by  Ireland  of  that  without  which  all  else  is  vain — the 
right  of  making  her  own  laws  in  her  own  parliament ! 

We  resume  Mr.  O'Connell's  speech,  at  the  point  where  we 
have  been  tempted  to  make  this  digression. 

"  I  repeat  it !  The  delay  of  Emancipation  I  hear  with  pleasure, 
because  in  that  delay  is  included  the  only  prosjyect  of  obtaining  my 
great,  my  ultimate  object — the  Legislative  Independence  of  my 
native  land  I 

"I  have  wandered  from  my  subject ;  but  I  have  not  forsaken  your 
cause.  The  very  calumnies  of  your  enemies  and  mine  lead  us  to  the 
discussion  of  topics  which  it  is  for  their  interest  to  bury,  if  they  can, 
in  eternal  oblivion !  The  manner  in  which  I  shall  refute  their 
calumnies  is,  by  endeavouring  to  serve  you.  I  cannot  do  that  better 
than  by  tendering  to  you  my  humble,  but  my  honest  advice.  The 
present  period  peculiarly  calls  for  that  advice.  Emissaries  are 
abroad,  agents  have  been  employed,  abundance  of  money  and  great 
encouragements  are  held  out  to  those  who  may  seduce  you  from  your 
allegiance.  Your  enemies  cannot  put  you  down,  unless  you  your- 
selves lend  them  assistance.  Your  cause  must  triumph,  unless  you 
yourselves  crush  it.  You  have  the  fate  of  Ireland  in  your  hands — 
upon  you,  and  upon  you  alone  does  it  depend.  Alas  !  for  poor  Ire- 
land !  Her  liberties  depend  upon  the  prudence  of  a  people  of  the 
most  inflammable  passions,  goaded  almost  to  madness  on  the  one  ban  d 
by  Orange  insults  and  oppressions,  and  exposed  at  the  same  time  to 
the  secret  seductions  of  the  agents  and  emissaries  of  those  very  Orange 
oppressors ! 

"  Do  you  wish  to  gratify  the  Orangemen  ?  If  you  do,  the  way  is 
before  you.  You  have  only  to  enter  into  some  illegal  or  traitorous 
association  ;  you  have  only  to  break  out  into  turbulence  or  violence, 
and  the  Orangemen  will  be  delighted,  because  it  will  afford  them  the 
wished-for  opportunity  of  rioting  in  your  blood  ! 

"  Do  you  desire  to  afflict  and  disgust  your  friends  ?  If  you  do,  the 
way  is  open  to  you.  You  need  only  form  illegal  or  seditious  societies. 
You  have  only  to  commit  some  outrages  against  the  public  peace,  and 


424  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

against  your  sworn  allegiance,  and  your  friends  must  abandon  your 
cause  with  contempt  and  abhorrence. 

"  In  short,  your  enemies  are  on  the  alert.  They  throw  out  the 
language  of  irritation,  and  they  adopt  every  measure  of  oppression  to 
goad  you  to  a  violation  of  the  law — to  a  departure  from  your  loyalty 
and  peaceable  demeanour.  But  it  does  not  rest  there.  They  send 
round  their  agents  with  money,  and  with  pardon  for  themselves,  to 
preach  in  private  circles  the  doctrine  of  insurrection — to  form  secret 
knots  and  associations — to  seduce  you  into  crime  and  then  betray  you. 
These  miscreants  endeavour  to  obtain  your  confidence,  that  they  may 
sell  your  lives !  Tn  the  meantime,  the  Orangemen  stand  to  their  arms, 
ready  prepared,  primed  and  loaded ;  they  stand  with  the  triangle  and 
the  gibbet,  to  torture,  to  plunder,  and  to  massacre ! 

"Alas !  alas  !  my  countrymen,  see  you  not  the  fatal  snare  ?  Do  you 
not  comprehend  the  cruel  purpose  of  your  betrayers  ?  Yes !  my 
countrymen  were  never  deficient  in  intellect — they  never  Avanted 
ready  comprehension.  They  do,  and  they  must  perceive  that  if  a 
single  parish — if  a  single  village — nay,  if  a  single  individual,  exhibits 
the  symptoms  of  political  crime — if  a  single  wish,  inconsistent  with 
loyalty,  allegiance,  peace,  be  expressed,  our  enemies  will  have  an 
excuse,  and  a  justification  for  their  crimes  and  oppressions  !  The 
Habeas  Corpus  Act  will  again  be  suspended — the  reign  of  torture 
and  of  terror  will  again  be  renewed,  and  the  cause  of  Ireland  will  be 
lost,  and  lost  for  ever ! 

"I  am  deeply  anxious  to  impress  upon  those  who  hear  me,  or  n^ay 
chance  to  read  a  report  of  what  I  utter — I  am  most  deeply  anxious 
to  impress  upon  the  minds  and  understandings  of  every  true  Irish- 
man, that  disloyalty  to  his  sovereign  would  be  double  treason  to  his 
country;  it  would  be  perjury,  aggravated  by  folly,  and  followed  by 
the  eternal  extinction  of  the  liberties  of  Ireland.  And  what  prospect 
could  there  possibly  be  of  aught  besides  destruction  ?  You  would 
have  no  friends — no  supporters.  We,  who  now  join  you  in  bearing 
down  upon  our  oppressors — we,  who  expose  the  hypocrites  that  cover 
their  bigotry  in  the  stolen  garments  of  religion — we,  who  are  ready 
to  run  every  danger,  to  sustain  every  calumny,  and  every  loss  and 
personal  inconvenience  in  your  cause,  so  long  as  you  conduct  that 
cause  within  the  limits  of  the  constitution — we,  in  whom  you  confide, 
would,  and  must,  be  found,  if  you  A'iolate  the  law,  in  the  ranks  of 
your  enemies,  and  in  arms  ! 


DANIEL    o'cONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  425 

"  For  myself,  I  will  tell  you  honestly,  that  if  ever  that  fatal  day 
arrive,  you  will  find  me  arrayed  against  you.  There  will  not  be  so 
heavy  a  heart ;  but  thei'e  will  not  be  a  more  ready  hand  to  sustain  the 
constitution  against  every  enemy ! 

*'  Think  you  that  I  should  thus  consume  your  patience  in  repeating 
my  cautions,  did  I  not  know  that  at  this  moment  no  means  are  left 
untried  to  seduce  the  population  of  this  country  ?  Our  enemies  have 
long  duped  the  people  of  England — indeed,  that  was  not  difficult ;  so 
dishonest  and  besotted  a  people  as  the  English  never  lived.  (Loud 
cheers.)  Yes ;  they  are  dishonest  and  besotted  !  Individuals — many 
individuals,  and  classes  amongst  them,  I  I'espect  and  reverence  ;  but 
as  a  nation,  I  must  say,  and  I  can  prove  it,  that  they  are  most  profli- 
gate and  quite  lost  in  folly. 

"  For  a  specimen  of  their  morality,  take  a  few  transactions  of  this 
war — a  Avar  carried  on  for  the  preservation  of  justice,  social  order, 
and  religion  !  "Well,  in  this  just  and  religious  war,  the  English 
attack,  plunder,  murder  a  people  with  whom  they  are  then  at  peace! 
Without  a  shadow  of  any  provocation,  they,  in  the  midst  of  peace, 
steal  the  Danish  fleet,  burn  the  Danish  capital,  and  massacre,  even 
to  the  infants  in  her  foundling  hospital ! !  But  this  is  not  all.  This 
atrocious  crime,  for  which  England  will  be  ever  execrated,  and  will, 
probably,  be  punished — this  atrocious  crime  is  now  followed  by  a 
formal  treaty  with  Sweden,  by  which  England  sanctions  the  robbery 
of  an  entire  kingdom.  Sweden  has  no  more  right  to  Norway  than 
Napoleon  to  London  ;  yet  the  English  give  her  Norway !  What 
would  they  say  if  Napoleon  were  now  to  make  a  present  of  Ireland  ? 
Sweden  is  the  good  ally  of  England.  Such  good  friends  ought  to 
make  near  neighbours ;  and  Ireland  would,  I  think,  suit  Swedish 
purposes  as  well  as  Norway. 

"  Such  is  the  morality  of  England,  that  she  has  afforded  the  example 
that  would  justify  the  transfer  of  her  own  dominions  to  foreigners. 

"  As  to  English  stupidity,  it  is  really  become  proverbial ;  it  is 
treated  by  her  rulers  with  too  little  ceremony.  The  mercenary  Press 
which  they  pay  does  exhibit,  I  think,  a  little  too  much  contempt  for 
the  English  understanding.  The  Courier.,  for  example,  begins  the 
week  with  some  egregious  lie  or  other;  the  writers  ai-e  aware  that  its 
falsehood  will  be  discovered  by  Thursday ;  but  on  Thursday  they 
are  prepared  with  a  second  lie,  which  will  last  till  Saturday,  when  lie 
the  third  is  coined ;  and  the  English — the  most  thinking  English — 
swallow,   with  the  same  unabating   credulity,  the  first,  second,  and 


426  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

third  of  these  lies,  and  are  prepared  to  commence  the  ensuing  week 
with  an  unabated  appetite  for  falsehood !   (Cheers  and  laughter.) 

"  To  descend  from  the  nation  to  an  individual.  Can  anything  be 
more  beastly  stupid  than  the  conduct  of  Lord  Kenyon,  who  is  now 
organizing  Orange  lodges  ?  Why  does  not  the  animal  see  that  the 
principle  of  religious  exclusion  might  have  prevented  him  from  being 
a  lord  ? — that  he  has  escaped  into  sinecure  places,  property,  and  a 
peerage,  by  the  accident  of  his  father's  creed  ?  For  example — if  his 
father,  who  was  a  common  writing  clerk  to  an  attorney,  if  he  by 
accident  had  been  a  papist,  the  present  Lord  Kenyon,  instead  of 
being  a  peer,  would,  most  probably,  have  been  a  private  soldier,  or  a 
peasant ;  or,  at  the  utmost,  by  a  timely  conversion  from  the  errors  of 
popery,  he  might  have  arrived  at  the  dignity  of  being  the  first 
preacher,  and  highest  bouncer,  of  some  society  of  Welsh  '  j  umpers.' 
(Laughter.)  Yes  ;  my  Lord  Kenyon,  if  he  had  a  particle  of  under- 
standing, would  feel  that  his  Orange  exertions  expose  the  upstart 
only  to  the  contempt  of  a  people  whom  he  may  oppress,  but  of  whom 
he  would  not  dare  personally  to  insult  the  lowest  individual ! 

"  Such  is  the  state  of  England ;  she  is  ready  to  sanction  any  crime — 
to  credit  any  delusion. 

"  Her  Orangemen  calumniate  you.  They  only  require  of  you  one 
single  act  of  sedition  and  turbulence,  and  you  will  confirm  and  estab- 
lish their  calumnies  for  ever  ! 

"  I  have,  I  own,  been  tedious  in  the  advice  I  have  given  you  for 
the  regulation  of  your  conduct,  but  think  not  that  I  recommend  to 
you  to  submit  to  Orange  outrage  and  insult.  Let  them  go  to  war  with 
you  ;  do  you  content  yourself  with  going  to  law  with  them.  If  they 
dare  to  attack  the  wealthy  Catholic — a  proceeding  they  are  generally 
much  too  prudent  to  adopt,  the  wealthy  Catholic  can  protect  himself. 
If  they  attack  the  poor,  we  are  bound,  and  willing,  to  procure 
protection  for  him  ;  on  his  behalf  the  protection  of  the  law  shall 
be  exerted.  I  am  able  to  promise  it,  because  the  Catholic  board  has 
the  rich  treasury  of  the  Irish  heart  to  draw  upon,  in  order  to  procure 
the  funds  necessary  to  afford  this  protection. 

"  I  repeat  it ;  no  illegal  outrage  shall  be  committed  with  impunity 
by  the  Orange  banditti  upon  the  poor,  or  the  hitherto  unprotected. 
This  is  the  first  duty  that  we  owe  to  the  patient  people. 

"  We  owe  them  another.  We  owe  them  the  home-market  ;  we 
owe  them  the  consumption  of  Irish  manuiactures — the  consumption 
of  riothinq  hut  Irish  manufactures.     (Loud  and  repeated  cliccrs.) 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,     M.P.  427 

"  Yes  ;  it  is  a  solemn  duty  imposed  upon  the  Irish  Catholics,  to 
give  to  their  own  countrymen  the  priority  of  their  custom.  One 
would  imagine  that  it  ought  to  require  no  argument  to  enforce  this 
duty,  but  the  melancholy  fact  is,  that  Ireland  is  debased  and  de- 
graded ;  first,  and  principally,  because  Irishmen  have  given  a  per- 
verse preference  to  everything  that  was  not  Irish.  "We  enrich  the 
bigots  of  England,  and  we  leave  our  own  manufacturers  starving, 
and  then  we  talk  of  our  patriotism  !  In  fact,  the  clothing  districts 
in  England  are  the  most  bigoted  portions  of  it.  The  no-Popery  cry 
commenced  last  year  in  the  very  centre  of  the  cloth  manufactory. 
It  commenced  with  the  dealers  in  cloth,  at  Pontefract,  in  Yorkshire ; 
and  I  need  only  appeal  to  the  Leeds  newspaper,  for  the  absurd  viru- 
lence with  which  persecution  is  advocated  in  that  town. 

"  Why,  in  that  very  paper  I  read  about  a  fortnight  ago  an  account 
of  a  fresh  rebellion  in  Ireland — nay  in  Dublin  ! !  As  none  of  you 
heard  of  it,  let  me  inform  you,  that  it  actually  took  place.  (Loud 
laughter.)  I  forget  the  day,  but  that  is  not  material.  It  took  place  in 
Exchequer- street.  The  Nottingham  regiment  covered  it  with  glory! 
They  fought  the  popish  rebels  for  two  hours ;  the  rebels  ascended 
the  houses,  fired  out  of  the  windows,  threw  brickbats  and  large 
stones  from  the  roofs  !  Two  regiments  of  horse,  three  regiments  of 
foot,  the  Flying  Artillei'y  from  Island-bridge,  and  the  regiment  of 
Artillery  from  Chapelizod,  all  shared  in  the  honour  of  the  day ! 
and,  at  length,  the  main  body  of  the  rebels  retired  to  the  Wicklow 
mountains,  and  the  residue  of  them  went  to  bed  in  town ;  fortunately 
no  person  was  killed  or  wounded,  and  tranquillity  was  restored  by  a 
miracle !     (Loud  laughter.) 

"  Do  you  imagine  I  jest  with  you  ?  No  ;  I  solemnly  assure  you 
that  the  story  is  gravely  told  in  the  Leeds  newspaper.  Some  of  the 
London  journals  have  copied  it,  even  to  the  scrap  of  bad  Latin  with 
which  Yorkshire  dulness  has  adorned  it ;  and  there  is  not  a  maker 
of  woollen  cloth  at  Leeds  that  would  not  swear  to  the  truth  of  every 
sentence,  and  every  word  of  it  I 

"  And  are  these  the  men  for  whom  you  are  making  fortunes  ? 
Are  there  not,  perhaps,  hundreds  that  have  been  clothed  in  the 
'fabric  of  these  dullest  of  all  malignant  bigots?  Probably  the  wretch 
who  ftibricated  the  lie  is  himself  engaged  in  the  woollen  trade,  and 
that  Irish  Catholics  are  his  customers  and  consumers.  Let  us  teach 
these  drivellers  and  dotards  that  they  cannot  insult  us  with  impunity. 
The  most  sensitive  part  of  an  Englishman  is  his  purse ;  let   us  apply- 


428  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

ourselves  to  this  his  organ  of  sensitiveness,  and  make  him  feel  in  his 
tenderest  part,  the  absurdity  of  rousing  an  anti- Anglican  spirit 
amongst  us  ;  by  this  will  you  punish  your  enemies  ;  but  what  is 
still  more  delightful,  by  this  will  you  encourage  and  stimulate  the 
industry  of  your  own  poor  countrymen.     (Cheering.) 

"  Let  us  leave  to  the  Orangemen  the  produce  of  England.  The 
Orangemen  are  the  sworn  enemies  of  Ireland,  and  naturally  enough 
have  ratified  their  alliance  with  England.  But  let  us  recollect  that 
our  own  tradesmen  are  starving ;  that  it  is  in  vain  to  preach  loyalty 
and  obedience  to  the  laws,  if  we  leave  our  people  without  employ- 
ment, if  we  encourage  English  industry,  and  thereby  promote 
idleness  in  Ireland.     (Hear,  hear.) 

"  For  my  own  part,  I  have  long  made  it  a  scrupulous  duty,  not  to 
wear  anything  that  was  not  Irish ;  and  if  you  will  sanction  so  humble 
an  example  by  your  imitation,  you  will  confer  wealth  and  content 
upon  those  who,  in  their  turn,  will  powerfully  aid  you  in  the  pursuit 
of  your  liberties.  I  shall  move,  and  I  am  confident  you  will  adopt  a 
resolution  to  this  effect.     (Hear,  hear,  hear.) 

"  I  have  also  one  resolution  more  to  propose.  It  is  suggested  to 
me  by  my  anxiety  to  obtain  an  adequate  counterpoise  from  the  law 
against  the  weight  of  misery  which  the  revival  of  the  Orange  system 
threatens. 

"  I  mean  to  move — 

"'That  the  board  should  prepare  a  second  petition  to  the  legislature,  to 
take  into  consideration  the  judicial  system  in  Ireland — the  admiuistration  of 
the  law  amongst  us.' 

"  "We  all  know — and  by  sad  experience  we  feel — how  it  is  admi- 
nistered. It  has  been  more  than  once  said,  quaintly  and  not  untruly, 
that  voting  for  the  Union  did  not  make  a  man  a  good  lawyer.  We 
all  know  that  it  did  not,  but  it  made  many  men  judges ;  and  some  it 
made  judges  who  had  never  held  a  brief.  But  this  is  not  what  I 
complain  of  at  present;  it  is  something  more  immediately  injurious; 
it  is  the  profligacy  that  is  induced  by  the  present  state  "^  the  law  in 
the  mode  of  selecting  juries  !  I  need  not  remind  you  of  the  care  with 
which  every  Catholic  is  excluded  from  the  panel — or  at  least  from 
the  jury — when  any  question  interesting  to  us  is  to  be  tried.  How 
carefully  every  envenomed  bigot  is  congregated,  to  pronounce  a 
verdict  of  conviction  by  anticipation.  Our  petition  must  state  these 
facts,  and  we  will  offer  to  prove  them  in  their  details.     For  example — 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  429 

we  will  offer  to  prove,  that  a  man  in  the  class  of  bank  director,  has 
been  heard  to  declare  in  public  company,  that  he  wanted  no  money — 
not  he,  from  government — all  he  asked  was,  that  when  they  should 
have  a  papist  to  try,  that  they  should  put  him  on  the  jury  ! !  (Cries 
of  shame.) 

*'  I  tell  you  that  this  is  a  fact — a  fact  which  we  are  able  distinctly 
to  prove — nay  more,  that  his  request  was  complied  with,  or,  at  least, 
that  he  teas  put  on  a  papist's  jury  ! ! ! 

"We  will  also  furnish  the  instance  of  the  present  sheriffs  of 
Dublin — Morgan  and  Studdart ;  they  were  elected  for  no  other 
reason  but  for  their  hostility  to  the  Catholics. 

"  The  facts  are  public — Mr.  "Warner  was  entitled  by  the  courtesy 
usually  adopted  in  the  corporation,  to  be  sheriff.  He  was  called  on 
by  Giffai-d  (what  a  sense  of  justice  this  being  must  have  !) — he  was 
called  on  by  Giffard  to  pledge  himself  against  the  Catholics.  Mr. 
Warner  who  is  a  man  that  does  honour  to  your  city,  finally  refused 
to  give  any  such  pledge.  Messrs.  Morgan  and  Studdart  cheei'fully 
gave  it.  What  was  the  consequence  ?  Why,  Mr.  Warner  was 
instantly  rejected — Morgan  and  Studdart  instantly  appointed.  The 
tenure  of  their  office  Avas  a  pledge  against  us — they  have  faithfully 
redeemed  that  pledge. 

"  How  many  gentlemen,  too,  have  been  refused  the  office  of  sheriff, 
for  signing  a  petition  in  our  favour  ?  I  need  not  go  to  Carlo w  for 
instances  !  How  many  have  been  appointed  for  their  hostility  to  us? 
I  need  not  go  to  Kilkenny  for  instances !  In  short,  my  object  is 
simply  this :  at  present  the  law  treats  the  Catholics  as  aliens  and 
strangers  in  their  native  land.  All  I  require  is,  that  if  we  are  to 
continue  aliens  and  strangers  in  Ireland,  we  may  have  the  privilege 
of  aliens  and  strangers ;  not  only  the  Frenchman,  but  the  Turk,  the 
Jew,  and  the  negro,  are  entitled  to  this  privilege,  that  if  they  are 
indicted  for  robbery,  or  killing  an  Irishman,  the  jury  shall  not  be 
all  Irish,  but  that  one-half  must  be  foreigners. 

"  The  privilege  of  the  Jew,  or  the  Turk,  or  the  barbarous  negro, 
is  all  I  ask  for  the  Catholic.  Let  not  Mr.  Attorney-General  be 
enabled  to  get  up  a  mocking  of  a  trial,  and  array  his  bigots  in  sup- 
port of  the  falling  cause  of  bigotry. 

"I  will  conclude  with  a  motion  to  this  effect :  but  let  me  first  recall 
to  your  recollection  the  situation  of  one  of  your  earliest  advocates, 
the  Eev.  Steel  Dickson.  He  dared  to  be  honest  and  independent, 
when  it  had  ceased  to  be  a  fashion.     At  one  time,  the  Presbyterians 


430  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

of  Ireland  stood  the  very  foremost  amongst  her  children.  They  it 
was  who  principally  forced  a  free  trade  from  England,  in  1778 — 
they  it  was  who,  in  1782,  insisted  in  arms  that  Ireland  should  have 
a  free  constitution  ;  and  a  free  constitution  she  instantly  obtained — 
they  it  was  who  were  the  enthusiastic  frienda  of  every  liberty. 
But,  alas,  how  fallen !  Lord  Castlereagh,  Doctor  Black,  and  the  regium 
donum  have  converted  them  into  Orangemen.  As  Orangemen,  they 
brought  about  the  Union  ;  and  now  they  are  persecuting  this  Chris- 
tian priest,  this  preacher  of  the  Most  High  God,  because,  forsooth, 
he  has  presumed  to  preach  peace,  and  charity,  and  good-will  to  all 
men. 

"  Allow  me  to  say  one  word  of  myself.  I  want  to  read  my  recan- 
tation. (A  laugh.)  I  have  been  accused  by  the  public  papers  of 
having  spoken  slightingly  of  Gi'attan.  I  do  not  think  I  did  so  ;  but 
if  I  did,  I  shall  only  say,  that  I  retract  and  renounce  my  error. 
Grattan,  if  he  be  mistaken,  must  ever  be  beloved  by,  and  a  pride  to, 
every  Irish  heart.     (Cheering.) 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  concluded  by  moving  the  resolution  respecting 
Irish  manufacture,  and  also  that  for  adopting  and  forwarding  a 
second  Catholic  petition,  during  the  current  session  of  parliament." 

These  resolutions  were  severally  put  from  the  chair,  and 
passed  with  entire  unanimity,  and  amid  great  cheering. 

Mr.  0' Gorman  next  rose,  and,  after  a  speech  of  some  length, 
made  a  motion,  calling  on  the  Catholic  board  to  consider  the 
propriety  of  an  appeal  to  the  Cortes  of  Spain,  to  intercede  with 
their  British  allies  in  favour  of  Catholic  Ireland. 

The  motion  will  be  found  in  the  advertisement  of  the  whole 
number  of  resolutions  at  the  meeting,  which  we  shall  presently 
give.  It  was  seconded  by  Major  Bryan,  and  passed  without 
discussion. 

"  THE  PRESS. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  said  he  had  another  resolution  to  propose  ; 
it  was  one  which  could  not  fail  to  pass  by  acclamation  ;  it  related 
to  the  liberal  and  enlightened  Press  of  Ireland,  and  to  the  most 
spirited  of  its  conductors  ;  that  Press,  which  has  rejected  and  despised 
the  abundant  proffers  of  corruption  ;  that  Press,  which  has  scorned 
to  accept  of  the  people's  money,  to  advocate  the  people's  oppressors ; 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  431 

that  Press,  which  has  disdained  a  dishonest  neutrality,  and  manfully 
and  avowedly  met  the  vexation  and  persecution  of  a  malignant  and 
base  administration  ;  that  Press,  in  short,  which  has  withstood  more 
temptation,  and  suffei-ed  more  persecution,  than  ever  the  open  Press 
has  yet  sustained — the  free  Press  of  Ireland. 

"  It  was  pleasant  to  speak  with  gratitude  of  them,  our  best  bene- 
factors. In  Ulster  we  had  the  Belfast  Magazine — a  work,  in  which 
all  the  elegance  of  classic  taste  was  combined  with  all  the  good 
feeling  of  virtuous  sentiment,  and  all  the  purity  of  genuine  Irish 
pati'iotism.  In  the  Orange  darkness  of  the  North  it  shone  a  light 
alone ;  it  enlivened  the  darkness  in  which  Ulster  was  involved  in 
the  very  low  state  of  the  public  mind,  and  the  degraded  state  of  the 
Press  in  that  province — a  province,  in  which  every  newspaper  con- 
ductor seems  to  bear  in  full  recollection  the  full  value  of  the  govern- 
ment proclamations,  but  totally  forgets  that  we  have  a  country,  and 
that  to  serve  her  is  a  profit  to  the  heart,  beyond  the  price  of  the 
paltry  bribe  of  the  Castle- 

"  Ulster,  once  the  source  of  Irish  feeling  and  of  Irish  indepen- 
dence, is  now  so  fallen  as  not  to  furnish  one  single  literary  advocate 
of  poor  Ireland,  save  the  writers  of  the  Belfast  Magazine.  What  a 
pity  it  is  that  this  invaluable  work  is  not  more  known  and  more 
encouraged  in  the  South  of  Ireland.  What  a  shame  to  the  Catholics 
is  it  that  this  friend  to  Ireland  is,  I  fear,  about  to  disappear  through 
our  neglect ! 

*'  In  the  South,  we  have  many  advocates  ;  in  Limerick,  there  is  one 
of  the  best  conducted  and  most  patriotic  papers  in  the  land,  the 
Limerick  Evening  Post.  In  Cork,  the  Mercantile  Chronicle,  an 
admirable  paper,  most  patriotically  conducted  by  my  esteemed  friend 
Counsellor  M'Donnell,  a  member  of  your  board,  and  a  first-rate 
Irishman.  There  is,  too,  in  Cork,  another  unbought,  though,  I 
think,  mistaken  paper.  In  Waterford,  in  Clonmel,  in  Wexford,  and 
in  Kilkenny,  we  have  also  papers  conducted  with  patriotism  and 
talent ;  but  to  Dublin  do  we  turn  for  the  first  glow  of  Irish  talent 
and  Irish  spirit.  In  the  Evermig  Post  we  have  a  brilliant  advo- 
cate, that  never  ceases  powerfully  to  serve,  and  severely  to  suffer 
for  us. 

"  In  the  Freeman^ s  Journal  and  in  the  Evening  Herald  we  have 
friends  who  cannot  be  bought  nor  intimidated,  and  whose  talents 
adorn  the  cause  of  their  country,  which  they  never  cease  to  promote. 
But  I  must  point   your  vote   particulai'ly  to  the    proprietor  of  the 


332  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

Evening  Post  ;  unseduced  by  the  pleasures  and  enjoyments  of  youth 
— uncontaminated  by  the  selfishness  of  wealth — unintimidated  by 
the  persecutions  of  power,  he  seeks  to  serve  you  as  disinterestedly  as 
he  opposes  your  enemies ;  he  serves  you  as  you  deserve  to  be  served, 
simply  because  your  cause  is  that  of  his  country,  and  for  that 
country  he  has  cheerfully  met  the  envenomed  shaft  of  persecution  ; 
he  has  fallen  into  the  fangs — the  unrelenting  fangs  of  our  Huguenot 
Attorney-General. 

"  For  Ireland  he  has  already  found  a  dungeon — for  Ireland,  is  he 
probably,  on  the  eve  of  returning  to  that  dungeon,  to  waste  the 
blooming  season  of  his  life,  and  to  expiate  the  unpardonable  crime 
of  allowing  his  heart  to  bleed  for  the  wrongs  and  woes  of  his  native 
land.  Need  I  urge  Irishmen  to  cheer  him  with  the  voice  of  their 
gratitude — of  their  approbation.  I  detain  you  from  the  vote  you 
are  anxious  to  give,  but  I  cannot  conclude  without  proclaiming  my 
conviction,  that  Ireland  would  be  free  if  she  possessed  a  second  John 
Magee.  (Loud  shouts  of  applause  for  several  minutes.)  Mr.  O'Con- 
nell  then  moved — 


"  Resolved — '  That  the  cordial  gratitude  of  the  Catholics  of  Ireland  be  given 
to  the  conductors  of  the  liberal  press  of  Ireland,  and  in  particular  to  John 
Magee,  Esq.' 

"  It  was  carried  by  acclamation. 


"  DUKE  OF  SUSSEX. 

"  The  thanks  of  the  meeting  were  then  voted  to  the  Duke  of 
Sussex.  This  motion  was  seconded  by  Mr.  O'Connor,  who  expressed 
himself  highly  gratified  at  this  opportunity  of  giving  some  token  of 
that  high  respect  with  which  the  friendly  attention  of  that  amiable 
prince  had  inspired  him  and  the  other  delegates. 

"  The  resolutions  being  all  passed,  Sir  Thomas  Esmonde  quitted  the 
chair,  and  Mr.  O'Connor  having  then  been  called  to  it,  the  thanks  of 
the  meeting  were  returned  to  Sir  Thomas  Esmonde,  Bart.,  for  his 
proper  conduct  in  the  chair." 

The  following  were  the  resolutions,  in  full,  as  adopted  at  this 
meeting,  and  subsequently  put  in  the  newspapers.  We  copy 
from  the  Dnhlin  Evening  Post : — 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  433 


"DUBLIN  CATHOLIC  MEETING, 

"  At  an  aggregate  meeting  of  the  Catholics  of  Ireland,  held  at 
the  theatre,  Fishamble-street,  Dublin,  on  Tuesday,  the  28th  of  June, 
1813, 

"  Sir  Thomas  Esmonde,  Bart.,  in  the  chair : — 

"  Resolved — '  That  Edward  Hay,  Esq.,  be  requested  to  act  as  secretary  to  the 
Catholics  of  Ireland.' 

"  Wm.  Francis  Finn,  Esq.,  the  secretary  to  the  late  general  meet- 
ing, read  the  answer  he  had  received  from  the  Right  Rev.  Doctor 
Milner,  in  return  for  the  thanks  of  the  Catholics  of  Ireland, 
which  was  received  with  rapturous  applause,  and  ordered  to  lie  on  the 
table. 

"  The  petition  drew  up  by  the  board  of  the  Catholics  of  Ireland 
being  read — 

"  Resolved — '  The  the  petition  now  read  be  received  and  committed  to  the 
care  of  the  board  of  the  Catholics  of  Ireland.' 

' '  Resolved — '  That  the  thanks,  gratitude,  esteem,  and  affection  of  the  Catho- 
lics of  Ireland,  are,  in  the  most  eminent  degree,  due,  and  are  hereby  given,  to 
Charles  PhiUips,  Esq.,  author  of  our  petition  ;  a  man  not  more  celebrated  for 
his  transcendent  genius,  than  for  the  benevolence  of  his  heart  and  the  zeal  of 
his  patriotism  ;  and  though  ourselves  labouring  under  recent  and  severe  disap- 
pointment, we  find  the  most  heartfelt  consolation  in  the  reflection,  that  our 
beloved  country  has  still  to  boast  of  having  produced  a  Phillips.' 

"Resolved — 'That  our  petition  be  transmitted  to  the  several  counties 
throughout  Ireland,  and  recommended  for  adoption.' 

"Resolved — 'That  the  board  of  the  Catholics  of  Ireland  be  requested  to 
cause  our  petitions  to  be  presented  to  both  houses  of  parliament  at  the  earliest 
period  of  the  ensuing  sessions.' 

"Resolved — '  That  Denis  Scully,  Esq.,  be  requested  to  publish  the  able  and 
excellent  speech  he  made  this  day.' 

"Resolved — '  That  towards  relieving  the  present  distress,  and  allaying  the 
deep  affliction  of  our  manufacturing  fellow-countrymen,  we  deem  it  to  be  our 
bounden  duty  to  give  a  decided  preference  to  the  use  of  Irish  manufacture  upon 
all  occasions ;  and  in  this,  our  resolution,  we  earnestly  solicit  the  concurrence 
of  the  Irish  people.' 

"Resolved — 'That  the  board  be  directed  to  prepare  a  second  petition  to 
parliament,  calling  the  attention  of  the  legislature  particularly  to  the  state  of 
the  judicial  system  in  Ireland,  so  as  (m  the  event  of  any  postponement  of  our 
liberties,)  to  obtain  for  the  Irish  Catholics  the  benefit  of  that  principle  which 
gives  to  aliens  a  jury  of  one-half  foreigners.' 

"  Resolved — '  That  it  be  our  instruction  to  the  Catholic  board,  to  consider  of 
the   constitutional   fitness   and  propriety  of  sending  an  earnest   and   pressing 

2  r 


434  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

memorial  to  the  Spanish  Cortes,  stating  to  them  the  enslaved  and  depressed  state 
of  their  fellow-Catholics  in  Ireland,  with  respect  to  their  exclusion,  on  the  score 
of  their  religion,  from  the  benefits  of  the  British  constitution,  and  imploring 
their  favourable  intercession  with  their  ally,  our  most  gracious  sovereign. 

'*  Kesolved — '  That  the  cordial  gratitude  of  the  Catholics  of  Ireland  be  given 
to  the  conductors  of  the  liberal  Press  of  Ireland,  and  in  particular  to  John 
Magee,  Esq. 

"Resolved — 'That  the  most  cordial  thanks  of  the  Catholics  of  Ireland  are 
eminently  due  and  hereby  given  to  his  Royal  Highness  the  Duke  of  Sussex,  for 
his  honest  and  manly  reprobation  of  the  Orange  system  ;  and  that  his  Royal 
Highness  be  requested  to  institute  an  inquiry  into  the  nature  and  tendency  of 
said  system,  in  the  House  of  Lords.' 

"Thomas  Esmonde,  Chairman. 

"  Owen  O'Connor,  Esq.,  in  the  chair  : 

** '  The  thanks  of  the  meeting  were  voted  by  acclamation  to  Sir  Thomas 
Esmonde,  Bart.,  for  his  conduct  in  the  chair,  and  for  his  general  patriotism.' 

"Owen  O'Connor,   Chairman. 
"Edward  Hay,  Secretary." 

The  reference  in  Mr.  O'Connell's  first  speech  at  the  meeting 
of  the  29th  June,  to  the  attempt  to  spread  the  Orange  lodge 
organization  throughout  England,  was  amply  justified  by  the 
fact. 

On  the  very  day  that  he  was  speaking,  Mr.  Charles  Williams 
Wynne,  then,  as  at  present,  member  for  Montgomeryshire, 
in  Wales,  rose,  in  the  House  of  Commons,  to  move — 

"  Tliat  a  committee  be  appointed  to  inquire  into  the  existence  of  certain  illegal 
societies,  under  the  denomination  of  Orangemen." 

In  making  this  motion  he  reviewed  the  origin,  formation,  and 
rules  of  the  Orange  society ;  and  then  made  the  following 
statement,  which  will  show  the  extent  of  the  movement  that  was 
attempted : — 

"  He  would  next  refer  to  the  means  which  were  provided  for 
establishing  these  societies  over  the  entire  country. 

"  It  appeared  that  Orange  lodges  met  regularly  in  London, 
Manchester,  Birmingham,  Liverpool,  Norwich,  Sunderland, 
Dover,  Chelmsford,  (in  Essex,)  Newcastle-upon-Tyne,  Shef- 
field, Bury,  Halifax,  Exeter,  Plymouth,  Chester,  Cambi-idge, 
Coventry,  Oldham,  and  many  of  the  smaller  towns.  That,  the 
publisher  of  the  pamphlets,  Mr.  Stockdale,   was  the  person  to 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  435 

give  any  information  respecting  the  days  of  meeting,  names 
of  the  masters,  &c.,  &c.,  to  any  Orangeman,  or  person  desirous 
of  becoming  one. 

"  That  provision  was  likewise  made  for  establishing  district 
lodges  ;  and  refjiments  being  considered  as  districts,  the  masters 
of  all  regimental  lodges  were  to  make  half-yearly  returns  of  the 
number,  names,  &c.,  &c.,  of  the  members  of  their  respective 
lodges,  to  the  secretary  of  the  grand  lodge. 

"  And  in  these  military  lodges  (in  utter  defiance  of  all  disci- 
pline and  regulations  whatsoever)  officers,  non-commissioned 
officers,  and  simple  privates  were  to  meet  upon  a  footing  of 
equality ! 

"  The  organization  of  those  societies  was  announced  in  all 
the  papers,  especially  in  those  which  were  known  to  be  under 
the  control  of  the  government ;  accounts  respecting  them  were 
constantly  circulated  in  different  parts  of  the  country  ;  extracts 
from  their  proceedings  were  copied  from  the  provincial  prints, 
and  names  of  high  rank  had  appeared  among  the  lists  of  the 
members,  without  any  attempt  at  contradiction,"  &c.,  &c. 

The  motion  was  met  by  the  ministry  by  a  faint  acquiescence, 
that  there  was  illegality  in  some  of  the  Orange  proceedings,  and 
a  suggestion  to  let  the  matter  rest  in  their  hands  for  inquiry. 
This  was  attended  to,  and  the  matter  dropped. 

The  treasonable  design,  which  was  detected,  and,  by  early 
detection,  crushed  in  1835,  to  set  aside  the  succession  to  the 
throne,  by  means  of  the  Orange  confederation,  had,  therefore,  its 
example  and  prototype  in  the  designs  and  attempts  of  1813. 
In  1813,  the  Duke  of  York  was  the  object,  and  the  personage 
to  be  set  aside  was  the  Princess  Charlotte.  In  1835,  the  Duke 
of  Cumberland  was  to  have  been  preferred  to  her  present  most 
gracious  Majesty,  then  the  Princess  Victoria. 

Both  infamous  treasons — the  more  infamous,  because  of  the 
characters  of  the  men  whom  they  would  have  put  upon  the 
throne,  to  the  exclusion  of  the  virtuous  and  beloved  princesses,  in 
whom  the  right  lay  at  the  different  periods,  were  the  foul 
concoctions  of  men  boasting  of^  their  loyalty,  and  praised  in 
parliament  by  Peel,  as  being,  above  all  things,  remarkable  for 
even  an  excess  of  that  quality. 


436  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

The  board  met  on  the  3r  J  of  July,  for  their  usual  weekly 
meeting. 

Mr.  O' Gorman,  in  reference  to  the  recommendation  he  had 
moved  at  the  aggregate  meeting,  that  the  Catholic  board  should 
consider  of  an  appeal  to  the  Spanish  cortes,  for  their  inter- 
ference with  England  in  favour  of  the  Catholics,  said  that  his 
motion  had  been  deemed  of  so  novel  a  character,  that  he 
thought  it  necessary  to  hunt  for  precedents  to  sanction  it. 

Of  these  he  stated  he  had  found  four,  perfectly  apposite  and 
analogous,  and  expected  to  be  fortified  with  more,  if  he  could 
obtain  a  week's  delay,  which  he  accordingly  requested  of  the 
board  to  allow  him. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  had  no  doubt  that  his  learned  friend  would  be 
able  to  find  precedents  in  abundance,  and  produce  other  arguments  in 
sufficient  number  to  justify  and  recommend  his  motion. 

"  The  government  of  England  had,  more  than  once,  recognized  the 
principle  of  interference  with  foreign  powers  being  admissible,  and 
often  expedient.  When  the  inhabitants  of  Flanders  had  complained 
to  them  of  the  aggressions  of  the  court  of  Spain,  they  not  only 
listened  to  them  with  approving  attention,  but  actually  furnished 
them  with  arms  to  resist  the  oppression  which  aggrieved  them. 

"  The  Catholics  of  Ireland  do  not  require  of  tlie  cortes  to  go 
entirely  so  far  as  this,  for  they  want  no  arms  to  enforce  their  rights, 
but  they  require  of  them,  sanctioned  by  the  example  of  their  ally, 
England,  to  give  oppressed  Ireland  their  sympathy,  and  any 
benefit  that  can  result  from  a  dispassionate  remonstrance  on  their 
behalf. 

"  The  efficacy  of  an  appeal  to  foreign  powers,  he  thought,  was 
eminently  established,  by  the  successful  interference  of  Cardinal 
De  Fleury,  on  behalf  of  the  Catholics  of  this  country.  The  humane 
parliament  of  Ireland,  it  was  known  to  all  who  heard  him,  had, 
for  the  pure  honour  and  glory  of  religion,  and  the  interest  of  the 
state,  resolved  upon  the  very  commendable  and  Christian  expedient 
of  emasculating  the  Irish  priests.  A  bill  for  this  wise,  laudable, 
statesmanlike,  and  manly  purpose  had  passed  the  Irish  Commons,  and 
had  passed  the  Irish  Lords,  and  it  was  sent  over  to  England  for  final 
sanction  and  approval.  The  poor  people  of  Ireland,  however,  bereft 
of  all  other  succour,  in  such  a  harrowing  and  soul-inflaming  moment 
of  their  degradation  and  debasement,  contrived  to  have  an  application 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  437 

made  to  the  famous  French  minister,  De  Fleury,  for  his  intercession 
on  their  behalf.  The  appeal  was  timely  and  successful.  The 
barbarity  was  averted,  and  the  tender-hearted  and  feeling  Lord 
Lieutenant  of  the  day,  had  the  painful  duty  of  informing  the  dutiful 
and  loyal  parliament,  that  their  wise  and  praiseworthy  intentions 
could  not  be  carried  into  effect. 

"This  precedent,  among  others,  Mr.  O'Connell  thought  was 
decidedly  recommendatory  of  Mr.  O' Gorman's  intended  resolution. 

"  Mr.  O'Gorman  observed  that  he  had  this  precedent  in  his  list. 
Leave  was  given  for  the  postponement. 

"IRISH  MANUFACTURE. 

"Mr.  O'Connell  gave  notice  of  a  motion,  which  he  intended  to 
make  on  Saturday,  disqualifying  any  member  from  sitting  or  voting 
in  the  Catholic  board,  after  the  1  st  of  August,  if  not  habited  in  Irish 
manufacture. 

"  This  notice  was  deservedly  received  with  peals  of  applause. 

"DOCTOR  MILNER. 

"Mr.  O'Connell  observed  that  this  was  the  day  appointed  by 
adjournment  for  the  consideration  of  his  motion  of  thanks  to  the 
Right  Rev.  Doctor  Milner.  He  thought  it,  however,  quite  unneces- 
sary to  occupy  the  time  of  the  meeting,  by  making  any  formal 
motion  after  the  resolution  of  the  aggregate  meeting  ;  and  he  would, 
therefore,  dismiss  his  notice  as  superfluous. 

"  This  was  unanimously  assented  to. 

"  CATHOLIC  BISHOPS. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  said,  that  as  he  was  on  his  legs,  and  had,  in  some 
measure,  drawn  the  attention  of  the  meeting  to  the  L-ish  prelacy,  he 
could  not  avoid  noticing  a  speech  which  was  delivered  on  "Wednesday 
last,  at  a  public  dinner  in  Cork,  by  a  near  and  dearly  beloved 
relative  of  his,  and  a  high  and  distinguished  ornament  of  the  Catholic 
church,  he  meant  Doctor  Sugrue.     (Loud  applause.) 

"  The  dinner  was  given  to  compliment  this  pious  and  venerated 
pastor,  as  well  as  Doctors  Moylan  and  Coppinger  ;  the  guests  were 
composed  entirely  of  Catholics — considerably  of  Catholic  clergymen  ; 


438  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

and  the  following  were  the  admirable  sentiments  uttered   by  Doctor 
Sugrue,  as  given  by  the  Cork  Southern  Reporter : — 

"  Toast — '  The  Eoman  Catholic  clergy  of  Ireland — May  they  never  forsake 
their  flocks,  nor  be  forsaken  by  them.' — Three  times  three. 

"  Dr.  Burke  returned  thanks. 

"  Dr.  Sugrue  rose  and  said,  he  always  thought  he  had  an  Irish 
heart — to-night  he  felt  he  had  one.  The  Irish  people  were  always 
loyal  to  their  God ;  how  then  could  they  be  disloyal  to  their  country  ? 
Perish,  then,  those  degrading  suspicions  which  are  entertained  of 
them.  Was  it  possible  that  they  who  had  been  loyal  under  persecu- 
tion, would  be  disloyal  when  there  was  nothing  to  complain  of? 
"We  have  already  given  our  oaths,  and,  if  they  are  not  to  be 
credited,  why  enact  new  ones  ?  You  all  know  if  the  Pope  was 
inclined  to  do  mischief  he  could  not,  and  if  he  was  to  go  beyond 
his  authority,  which  is  purely  spiritual,  you  would  be  bound  to  dis- 
obey him. 

"  There  is  no  room  for  the  alarm  that  has  been  spread,  nor  is  there 
any  foundation  for  the  assertion  that  has  been  used,  that  the  Catholic 
bishops  are  averse  to  concession.  They  had  already  given  their 
oaths,  and  theu'  past  lives  were  the  best  guarantee  for  their 
future  conduct.  They  were  prepared  to  conciliate — the  safety  of 
their  religion  was  their  only  object,  but  they  would  not  enter  into  a 
barter  subversive  of  its  tenets  and  repugnant  to  its  discipline. 

"  This  great  cause,  however,  was  rapidly  advancing  to  success. 
The  rank  and  talent  of  the  nation  were  ranged  in  its  behalf,  and 
before  them  the  twilight  of  bigotry  must  fade.  In  the  language  of 
one  of  their  most  celebrated  advocates,  '  as  well  may  it  be  attempted 
to  place  a  foot  upon  the  centre  of  the  earth,  and  stop  its  diurnal 
motion,  as  to  endeavour  to  retard  the  progress  of  the  right  reasoning 
and  philosophy  which  had  been  urged  upon  this  eventful  subject,  and 
which  must  finally  ensure  its  success.' 

"SUBSCRIPTIONS. 

"  MONAGHAN    OUTRAGES. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  next  spoke  of  the  recent  violences  in  Monaghan. 

"  He  alluded,  in  earnest  terms,  to  the  great  necessity  there  was  of 
making  some  fund  for  the  pui'pose  of  seeking  legal  redress  against 
the  cruel  oppressions  practised  against  the  Catholics,  and  stated  that 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,  M.P.  439 

there  had  been  recent  accounts,  as  was  mentioned  in  the  Freeman's 
Journal  of  that  morning,  of  fresh  Orange  atrocities  in  the  same 
county. 

"DINNER  IN  DUBLIN. 

"Mr.  Eandal  McDonnell  suggested  votes  of  thanks  to  Grattan 
and  their  other  friends,  and  a  public  dinner  to  them  as  early  as 
possible. 

"  Mr.  Q'Connell  cordially  adopted  the  idea  of  his  much  respected 
friend  ;  he  thought  it  would  be  useful  to  the  cause  of  Ireland,  that 
another  great  meeting  of  the  advocates  of  religious  liberty  should 
take  place,  and  no  period  could  be  more  timely  for  the  presentation 
of  the  address  of  thanks  than  when  Mr.  Grattan  and  the  other 
members  of  the  Imperial  Parliament,  whose  company  might  be  pro- 
cured, had  assembled  in  town. 

"  The  address  will,  of  course,  have  a  general  application,  and  it 
might  be  made  a  medium  of  giving  Mr.  Grattan  and  his  patriotic 
colleagues,  a  due  impression  of  such  mistakes  as  they  might  have 
fallen  into  during  the  late  struggle,  relative  to  the  precise  expecta- 
tions and  wishes  the  Irish  people  entertain  on  the  subject  of  their 
emancipation,  and  the  only  terms  on  which  they  would  accept  of  it. 

"  Major  Bryan  asked,  was  the  compliment  to  include  Lord  Castle- 
reagh,  as  a  supporter  of  emancipation  ? 

"  Mr.  O'Connell — I  have  been  speaking  of  friends — I  could  not, 
therefore,  mean  to  include  enemies." 

In  pursuance  of  the  suggestions  which  had  thus  been  thrown 
out  by  Mr.  M'Donnell,  and  so  well  received,  it  was  proposed 
that  there  should  be  nominated  a  committee  to  prepare  the 
address,  and  also  to  make  arrangements  for  the  dinner,  and 
Mr.  Scully's  name  was  called.  Mr.  Scully  declined  acting  on 
the  committee,  having  much  difficulty  as  to  the  expediency  of 
the  address  that  Mr.  O'Connell  had  in  view. 

To  a  simple  address  of  thanks  he,  of  coarse,  had  not  the 
slightest  objection ;  but  he  thought  the  recent  proceedings  of 
the  Catholic  board  gave  too  distinct  and  unequivocal  a  por 
traiture  of  their  precise  feelings  and  sentiments,  to  render  any 
additional  explanations  necessary. 

Mr.  M'Donnell  thought  this  another  reason  why  Mr.  Scully 


440  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

should  sit  on  the  committee,  and  accordingly  he  and  the  follow- 
ing gentlemen  were  appointed  : — 

Mr.  M'Donnell,  Mr.  M«Carthy, 

Mr.  O'Connell,  Mr.  Mahon, 

Dr.  Dromgoole,  Mr.  Blake, 

Mr.  Finn,  Mr.  Callanan 


IRISH  MANUFACTURE. 

Mr.  O'Connell  gave  notice  of  a  motion,  rendering  it  im- 
perative on  all  gentlemen  to  come  dressed  in  Irish  manufacture 
from  the  first  of  August. 

Mr.  Richard  O' Gorman  said  that  his  learned  friend  had  an- 
ticipated him;  but  though  it  so  happened  that  he  could  not 
be  the  mover  of  this  most  praiseworthy  resolution,  he  intended 
for  himself  the  great  satisfaction  of  being  its  seconder. 

On  Wednesday,  July  the  8th,  1813,  the  case  of  Mr.  John 
Magee  (proprietor  of  the  Dublin  Evening  Post),  the  gentleman 
so  warmly  spoken  of  in  the  last  speech  of  Mr.  O'Connell  at  the 
aggregate  meeting,  was  again  before  the  courts. 

Mr.  Finlay  applied  for  a  postponement  until  some  day  in  the 
following  Michaelmas  Term;  on  the  ground  of  the  absence  of 
several  parties,  without  whose  attendance  the  defendant  was 
advised  that  he  could  not  safely  proceed  to  trial,  viz. 

Sir  Charles  Saxton,  late  Under-Secretary  at  the  Castle, 

Right  Honble.  William  Wellesley  Pole,  late  Secretary  for 
Ireland, 

Robert  Peel  (or  Peele,  as  then  spelt),  then  Secretary  for 
Ireland ;  and 

Right  Hon.  William  Fitzgerald  (since  Lord  Fitzgerald  and 
Vesci),  Chancellor  of  the  Irish  Exchequer. 

With  Mr.  Finlay,  were  Messrs.  O'Connell,  Wallace,  Hamil- 
ton, and  Charles  Phillips. 

The  counsel  against  Magee  were: — Saurin,  the  Attorney- 
General,  Bushe,  the  Solicitor  General  (late  Chief  Justice  Queen's 
Bench,)  Sergeants  Moore  (late  Judge  Moore),  Ball,  and 
M' Mahon  (late  Sir  William  M'Mahon,  Master  of  the  Rolls). 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,  M.V.  441 

The  Attorney-General  strongly  resisted  the  application, 
which  he  characterized  as  "  idle  and  silly." 

After  a  good  deal  of  personal  invective  against  the  defendant, 
he  said :  "  My  lords,  you  will  be  shocked  to  hear  that  the 
defendant  is  indicted  and  charged,  by  this  indictment,  with 
charging  his  Grace  of  Richmond  with  being  a  murderer." 

"  Mr.  O'Connell — I  must,  my  lords,  interrupt  Mr.  Attorney - 
General,  intending  him  no  disrespect.  He  now  purports  to  state 
matter  which  is  contained  in  the  indictment,  but  he  has  not  given 
any  notice  of  using  it  upon  this  motion.  So  that  we  are  not  prepared 
to  correct,  by  the  attested  copy,  any  misstatements  that  he  may 
choose  to  make  of  its  contents. 

"  The  Chief  Justice  allowed  the  Attorney- General  to  proceed. 

"  The  latter  urged  that  it  was  idle  to  expect  Sir  Charles  Saxton 
and  Mr.  Wellesley  Pole  to  return  to  Ireland,  they  having  no  private 
aflPairs,  nor  fixed  residence  here,  and  being  out  of  office. 

"  That  if  Mr.  Peele  and  Mr.  Fitzgerald  were  not  arrived  on  the 
day  he  had  fixed  for  the  trial,  he  would  consent  to  a  postponement 
until  the  20th  instant ;  and  if  they  were  not  in  Ireland  even  by  that 
day,  it  would,  of  course,  be  in  the  hands  of  the  Court  to  postpone 
until  November. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  said,  that  as  leading  counsel  for  Mr.  Magee,  it 
was  his  duty  to  reply  to  the  Attorney-General. 

"  I  am,  indeed,  said  he,  at  a  loss  to  discover  what  it  is  I  am  to 
reply  to ! 

"  I  have  heard  from  him  abundance  of  confident  and  unfounded 
assertion,  but  a  total  want  of  anything  resembling  reason  or  argu- 
ment ;  with  his  style,  it  is  beneath  me  to  quarrel ;  but  with  the 
manner  in  which  he  has  treated  my  client  and  the  Court,  I  have  just 
reason  to  be  dissatisfied. 

"  Against  every  principle  of  law  and  reason  he  pronounces  my 
client  guilty  before  trial ;  he  anticipates  conviction,  and  exults  in  the 
prospect  of  inflicting  punishment  with  as  much  gratification  as  if  he 
were,  at  the  moment,  in  the  actual  enjoyment  of  so  doing.  And  he 
has  dictated  to  the  Court  that  which  involves  a  direct  contradiction 
of  its  former  decisions. 

"  I  did  interrupt  him,  my  lords,  and   I  was  right   to   interrupt — 


442  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

first,  because  he  made  use  of  a  document,  namely,  the  indictment,  of 
which,  in  point  of  form,  he  could  make  no  use  on  this  motion, 
because  of  not  having  given  any  notice  of  using  it.  Secondly, 
because  he  wilfully  misstated  and  misrepresented  that  indictment. 

"  He  has  told  me  that  my  assertion  is  absurd.  It  is  not  a  polite  mode 
of  reply,  but  he  does  say  that  my  assertion  is  absurd.  I  wish  to  be 
lenient  to  him,  but  I  am  compelled  to  prove  that  his  assertions  are 
disgraceful  to  him,  because  directly  contrary  to  the  fact ! 

"  He  has  told  you  that  Mr.  Magee  is  indicted  as  the  printer  of  a 
newspaper.  My  lords,  the  fact  is  otherwise.  Mr.  Magee  is  not 
indicted  as  the  printer  of  any  newspaper.  He  has  told  you  that  Mr. 
Magee  is  indicted  as  the  proprietor  of  a  newspaper.  My  lords,  the 
fact  is  otherwise.  Mr.  Magee  is  not  indicted  as  the  proprietor  of  any 
newspaper.  And  the  Attorney- General  has  also  told  you  that  Mr. 
Magee  is  indicted  for  charging  the  Duke  of  Richmond  with  being  a 
murderer.  The  truth  is  not  so — the  truth  is  otherwise.  Mr.  Magee 
is  not  indicted  for  charging  the  Duke  of  Richmond  with  being  a 
murderer. 

"  Will  it  then  be  said,  that  it  is  absurd  to  endeavour,  by  inter- 
ruption, to  prevent  the  Court  from  being  imposed  upon  by  so  glaring 
and  disgraceful  a  misrepresentation  of  the  facts  ?  If  so,  this  is  an 
absurdity  which  I  am  proud  of  committing. 

"  After  this  preface,  extorted  from  me  by  the  arrogant  manner  of 
the  Attorney -General,  I  beg  to  call  the  attention  of  the  Court  to  the 
motion. 

"It  is  really  a  motion  of  course,  if  the  documents  be  sufficient. 
Now,  upon  the  13th  of  May  last,  the  Court  decided  upon  debate  ;  and, 
notwithstanding  the  opposition  of  the  Attorney-General,  that  those 
documents  were  sufficient.  That  determination  was  founded  upon 
good  sense,  and  upon  admitted  principles  of  law.  The  ingredients  of 
a  motion  to  postpone  a  trial  are  these  : — First,  that  it  be  sworn  that 
witnesses  are  material  and  necessary  ;  secondly,  that  they  have  been 
served  with  process  to  compel  their  attendance  ;  thirdly,  that  they 
are  prevented  from  attending  by  reasons  of  a  temporary  nature ;  and, 
fourthly,  that  there  is  a  reasonable  expectation  and  a  prospect  of 
their  attending  upon  a  future  day.  All  these  ingredients  belong  to 
the  present  motion. 

"1.  It  is  sworn  that  the  four  witnesses  are  material  and  necessary. 

"  2.  That  they  have  been  served  with  process. 


DANIEL    O'CONNBLL,  ESQ.,   M.P.  443 

"  3.  That  tliey  are  detained  in  England  by  parliamentary  duty, 
and  appear  to  be  protected  in  their  absence  by  their  parliamentary 
privilege. 

"  4.  And  that  there  is  every  reason  to  expect  their  attendance  by 
the  first  day  of  next  term. 

"  Upon  these  grounds,  common  sense  tells  you  that  a  trial  ought 
to  be  postponed ;  and  upon  these  grounds  the  law  says  it  must  be 
postponed. 

"  Has  any  man  denied  that  this  is  the  law  ?  "Will  any  man  pre- 
sume to  deny  that  this  is  the  law  ?  If  he  do,  my  lords,  I  will  cite  a 
case  directly  in  point  to  sustain  my  allegation.  I  will  not  search  for 
it  in  the  blue-paper  books  of  stupid  reports,  which  every  packet 
brings  us — the  English  Court  of  King's  Bench  contradicting  their 
Court  of  Common  Pleas,  and  each  of  those  courts  most  impartially 
contradicting  itself — reports  that  involve  present  litigants  in  an 
inextricable  maze  of  controversy,  and  will  entail  upon  posterity  the 
curse  of  still  more  uncertain  and  more  interminable  litigation.  I  cite 
not  any  of  these  cases.  I  cite  the  case  of  the  King  against  Magee. 
The  identical  case  decided  by  your  lordships  on  the  last  day  of  last 
term.  Upon  the  very  documents  which  I  use  now,  you  then  decided, 
that  it  was  the  duty  of  the  Court,  and  the  right  of  the  party,  to  have 
the  trial  postponed.  Then,  as  now,  the  Attorney- Genei-al  exerted 
himself  to  have  Mr.  Magee  tried  in  the  absence  of  his  witnesses — 
then,  as  now,  he  gave  you  assertion  instead  of  argument — abuse 
instead  of  logic. 

"  Does  he  expect  that  this  Court  will  contradict  itself?  Shall  it  be 
said,  that  the  highest  criminal  court  of  justice  in  the  land  has  decided 
the  same  question  in  two  different  ways? — that  on  the  31st  of  May, 
they  decided  on  the  same  documents  and  between  the  same  parties, 
that  the  trial  should  be  postponed ;  and  on  the  "Tth  of  July,  upon 
those  very  documents  and  between  those  very  parties,  that  it  should 
not  be  postponed  ?  Does  the  Attorney-General  expect  that  the 
Court  will  involve  itself  in  this  plain  and  manifest  contradiction  ? — 
that  it  will  this  day  decide  one  thing,  and  to-morrow  decide  exactly 
the  reverse  ? 

"In  his  unfeeling,  unjust,  and  unconstitutional  anxiety  to  try 
Mr.  Magee,  at  a  time  when  his  witnesses  are  absent,  the  Attorney- 
General  cares  little  for  the  character  and  dignity  of  the  Court.  His 
only  object  is  the  gratification  of  a  malignant  spirit  of  revenge,  which 


444  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

the  Court  will,  as  it  ought,  feel  a  pleasure  in  counteracting,  when  at 
the  same  time  it  vindicates  its  own  consistency. 

'•  But,,  my  lords,  there  is,  in  fact,  a  difference  between  the  present 
application  and  the  last,  precisely  because  our  case  is  stronger  in  the 
present  instance  than  in  the  former.  Then,  my  lords,  we  could  have 
made  but  one  attempt  to  procure  the  attendance  of  those  witnesses. 
Now  we  show  you  many  exertions  to  procure  their  attendance. 
Our  diligence  was  less  on  the  former  occasion — it  is  now  greater ; 
and  is  it  possible  to  conceive  anything  more  absurd  than  to  expect 
that  the  Court  will,  at  the  request  or  upon  the  dictation  of  the 
Attorney- General,  now  refuse  that  to  a  stronger  case,  which  the 
Court,  on  the  last  occasion,  conceded  to  a  weaker  and  less  powerful 
case.  The  administration  of  justice  would  fall  into  great  disrepute, 
and  the  law  would  be  a  mockery,  if  that  which  was  deliberately  de- 
cided on  the  21st  of  May  should,  by  the  same  judges,  upon  a  stronger 
and  a  better  case,  be  reversed  on  the  7th  of  July. 

"  I  feel,  my  lords,  that  it  is  impossible  that  such  an  example  of 
inconsistency  and  want  of  principle  in  decision,  can  be  sanctioned 
for  one  moment  by  the  Court,  however  ardently  sought  for  by  the 
Attorney-General.  Thus  stands  the  case  upon  our  affidavits.  You 
decided  with  us  before  ;  we  only  require  a  repetition  of  your  decision. 

"  But,  it  is  said  the  case  is  different  now — that  there  is  now  an 
affidavit  made  on  the  part  of  the  Crown,  which  will  warrant  the  Court 
in  departing  from  its  former  rule.  This  I  must  altogether  deny ;  and 
I  am  prepared  to  show  you,  first,  that  you  cannot  read  that  affidavit 
at  all ;  secondly,  that  even  if  it  were  read,  it  would  furnish  no  grounds 
for  resisting  our  motion.  This  affidavit  cannot  be  read,  because  the 
person  who  makes  it  shows  no  connection  with  the  court  or  the 
parties.  He  furnishes  no  description  of  himself — no  reason  to  account 
why  he  should  throw  an  affidavit  on  your  files ;  he  calls  himself 
James  Murphy,  of  the  city  of  Dublin  ;  but  which  of  the  thousands  of 
Jemmy  Murphys  who  people  Dublin,  you  have  no  means  to  ascertain; 
whether  he  belong  to  Channel-row  or  Kildare-street,  you  cannot 
conjecture ;  if  he  be  gentleman,  esquire,  knight,  or  baronet,  attorney, 
doctor,  grocer,  or  merchant — all  this  is  concealed  from  the  Court :  he 
states  himself  to  be  '  James  Murphy,'  of  the  city  of  Dublin,  and  no 
more.  This  affidavit  has  been  made  deliberately  and  advisedly.  It 
has  been  filed  by  the  active  and  intelligent  Solicitor  for  the  Crown. 
It  has  been  advised,  of  course,  by  some  or  all  of  the  wise,  grave,  and 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  445 

learned  phalanx  of  counsel  for  the  prosecution.  Why,  then,  is  the 
swearer  concealed?  Let  them  give  us  a  reason  for  introducing  a 
nondescript  to  the  court.  Oh !  he  is  safe — this  James  Murphy  is  ! 
How  can  we  detect — how  can  we  punish  him  for  perjury  ?  Where 
shall  we  look  for  him  ?  How  shall  we  identify  him  ?  If  the  Court 
receives  this  affidavit,  it  holds  out  an  indemnity  to  perjury — a  pro- 
tection against  discovery,  to  fabrication  and  forgery. 

"  The  prosecutors  have  not,  however,  the  merit  of  invention ;  they 
only  imitate.  The  original  example  of  setting  at  defiance  was  given 
them  by  the  contrivers  of  a  public  document,  presented  to  an  honour- 
able assembly,  subscribed  in  many  a  forged  and  fictitious  name,  by 
rendering  detection  difficult  by  its  uncertainty :  to  that  document 
were  affixed  four  and  twenty  Armstrongs,  all  'of  the  city  of  Dublin.' 
Thus  may  every  species  of  imposition,  of  perjury  and  of  forgery  be 
committed,  if  not  without  disgrace,  at  least  without  punishment. 
This  affidavit  cannot  be  read,  because  it  is  the  affidavit  of  a  non- 
descript. The  rules  of  the  court  require  the  particular  description  of 
every  man  who  comes  forward  to  give  his  written  testimony  on  oath. 
Here  is  no  description  ;  you  must,  therefore,  reject  this  affidavit. 
Again,  it  is  a  ruled  case  that  no  affidavit  can  be  read,  unless  the 
person  shows  some  acknowledged  connection  with  the  court  or  the 
cause.  Thus,  in  the  case  of  Sullivan  v.  Margill,  reported  in  1st 
Hen.,  Black.  637,  an  affidavit  was  made  to  postpone  a  trial.  The 
affidavit  stated  quite  a  sufficient  case  for  that  purpose,  and  the  trial 
would  have  been  postponed  accordingly,  but  that  it  was  discovered  to 
have  been  made  by  the  clerk  of  the  defendant's  attorney,  describing 
himself  as  such.  My  lords,  the  affidavit  was  rejected,  and  the  motion 
refused  on  that  account.  It  was  rejected  and  refused,  because  the 
Court  would  not  recognise  any  connection  between  the  attorney's 
clerk  and  the  court,  or  the  cause  entitling  him  to  make  an  affidavit 
in  the  cause.  See  how  much  a  stronger  case  the  present  is  for  re- 
jecting this  affidavit.  There  the  man  who  made  the  affidavit  was 
an  ascertained  person,  and  actually  employed  as  the  assistant  of  the 
attorney  of  the  defendant.  Here  the  affidavit-maker  is  unknown, 
and  does  not  appear  to  have  any  connection  whatsoever,  even  with 
the  attorney.  If  the  Court  in  that  case,  which  has  ever  since  been 
recognised  as  law,  refused  to  hear  a  person  who  certainly  had  some, 
though  a  remote  connection  with  the  cause  and  the  parties,  how  can 
you  hear  a  mere  volunteer,  who  has  no  connection,  remote  or  other- 
wise, either  with  the  court  or  the  parties  ? 


446  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

"  It  follows,  in  point  of  convenience,  good  sense,  precedent,  justice, 
and  law,  that  this  affidavit  must  be  rejected.  But  let  me  concede 
that,  notwithstanding  all  those,  it  may  be  read.  What  advantages  can 
it  afford  ?  What  difference  can  it  make  in  the  case  ?  You  may,  then, 
see  what  it  is  that  James  Murphy,  whoever  he  be,  and  I  care  not 
who  he  be,  swears.  He  tells  you,  upon  his  oath,  that  he  believes 
that  Saxton,  who  has  sought  and  won  the  unpurcbasable  suffrages  of 
the  ancient  and  loyal  corporation  of  Cashel,  does  not  intend  to  grace 
Ireland  again  with  his  presence ;  that  Mr.  Wellesley  Pole,  the  repre- 
sentative of  the  Queen's  County,  does  not,  as  this  worthy  Jemmy 
Murphy  believes,  possess  any  residence  in  Ireland,  nor  does  he  intend, 
as  the  said  Murphy  believes,  to  return  here ;  and  he  then  swears  that 
he  believes  Mr.  Robert  Peel  intends  to  come  back,  and  that  Mr. 
William  Fitzgerald  intends  to  revisit  Ireland  shortly.  And  can  this 
ludicrous — this  nonsensical  affidavit — this  affidavit,  that  in  every  re- 
statement of  it  excites  the  laughter  and  contempt  of  every  person 
who  hears  it — can  it  be  gravely  urged,  as  affording  a  shadow  of 
excuse  for  requiring  of  you  to  change  your  pronounced  and  solemn 
opinion  on  the  subject  of  this  trial? 

"  It  is,  my  lords,  worse  than  no  excuse ;  it  tends  to  render  the 
administration  of  justice  ridiculous,  to  urge  it,  or  to  argue  upon  it. 
But  the  Attorney-General  is  so  very  desirous  to  have  this  trial  take 
place  before  the  witnesses  for  Mr.  Magee  can  attend,  that  I  must  be 
indulged  in  a  short  comment  on  this  affidavit.  One  can  easily  per- 
ceive that  it  is  a  bungling  and  slovenly  attempt  to  produce  some 
similarity  between  his  case  and  the  case  of  the  King  v.  the  Chevalier 
D'Eon,  the  3rd  Bur.  1514  ;  and  as,  in  that  case,  the  Court  refused  to 
postpone  the  trial,  although  the  witnesses  were  absent ;  so  it  is  hoped 
that  your  lordships  will,  on  the  authority  of  it,  refuse  to  postpone 
this  trial.  But  examine  the  facts,  and  you  will  see  that  case  cannot 
furnish  any  rule  to  govern  this.  In  D'Eon's  case  the  witnesses  were 
natives  of  France,  and  resident  there  ;  they  were  in  the  service  of 
the  crown,  and  as  the  French  court  was  interested  in  the  prosecution, 
they  would  not  even  be  permitted,  if  they  were  willing,  to  come  over. 
There  was  no  probability,  therefore,  of  their  future  attendance  ;  on 
the  contrary,  there  was  a  certainty  that  postponement  of  the  trial 
must  be  useless,  as  those  witnesses  could  never  attend. 

"  One  regrets,  indeed,  that  Lord  Mansfield  suffered  himself  to  be 
swayed  even  by  so  plain  an  argument,  when  the  case  afforded  a  prin- 
ciple upon  which  the  trial  might,  and  ought  to  have  been  postponed. 


DANIEL    o'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.V.  447 

It  was  this :  The  French  king  was,  in  fact,  the  prosecutor ;  it  was  at 
his  instance  the  prosecution  was  instituted ;  yet  he  it  was  who  de- 
tained the  witnesses.  It  seems  that  it  would  have  required  but  little 
of  the  indignant  spirit  of  liberty,  which  the  constitution  requires  from 
its  judges,  to  have  enabled  Lord  Mansfield  to  have  decided  that  he 
who  prosecuted  should  not  be  permitted  to  prevent  a  fair  trial ;  that 
if  he  detained  the  witnesses,  the  Court  would  postpone  the  trial,  so  as 
to  attain  justice — not  as  our  Attorney-General  desires  to  go  on, 
merely  to  procure  punishment.  No  ;  Lord  Mansfield  was  not  a  man 
calculated  to  disappoint  power  of  its  prey,  and  he  refused  to  postpone 
the  trial. 

"  Let  the  Attorney- General,  then,  make  the  most  of  his  precedent. 
D'Eon's  case  does  not  resemble  ours — the  witnesses  were  in  France, 
out  of  the  j urisdiction  ;  ours  are  in  England,  within  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  authority  of  your  process.  His  witnesses  were  beyond  the 
reach  of  punishment  for  any  disobedience  of  the  process  of  the 
English  courts ;  our  witnesses  are  liable  to  punishment  if  they 
disobey  your  process.  His  witnesses  could  not  be  compelled  to 
attend  ;  our  witnesses  can,  and,  when  parliament  rises,  will  be  com- 
pelled to  attend.  His  witnesses  would  not  be  permitted  to  leave 
France  ;  no  man  can  prevent  our  witnesses  from  leaving  England 
and  coming  here.  The  Duke  of  Richmond,  who,  one  may  venture 
to  hope,  has  no  anxiety  to  prevent  a  fair  trial,  and  Mr.  Attorney- 
General,  who  clearly  does  wish  to  prevent  a  fair  trial,  cannot  exclude 
our  witnesses  from  Ireland,  nor  detain  them  in  England.  In 
D'Eon's  case,  the  postponement  he  required  would  have  been  nuga- 
tory ;  he  had  no  prospect  of  procuring  his  witnesses,  even  if  the  time 
he  asked  had  been  granted.  In  our  case,  the  postponement  gives  us 
a  certainty  of  procuring  the  attendance  of  our  witnesses.  D'Eon's 
case  can,  therefore,  furnish  no  rule  to  regulate  this  case  ;  which,  so 
far  from  being  like  D'Eon's,  is  precisely  the  reverse. 

"  Mr.  Justice  Day The  cases,  certainly,  are  not  alike,  as  you  put 

them  ;  and  your  distinction  is  founded,  if  you  can  show  us  how  you 
can  compel  the  attendance  of  English  witnesses  here. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell. — There  is  no  difiiculty  in  that,  my  lord.  Their 
attendance  can  be  compelled,  under  the  provisions  of  the  45th  of  the 
King,  c.  84.  An  act  passed  for  the  amendment  of  Judge  Johnson's 
Act.  In  Judge  Johnson's  case,  the  gross  and  glaring  inconvenience 
and  injustice  which  would  manifestly  arise  from  taking  a  man  from 
the  place  where  he  had  really  done  any  act  to  a  place  where  he  had 


448  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

offended  only  constructively — to  a  place  where,  though  he  might  be 
transported  himself,  he  could  not  compel  the  attendance  of  his 
witnesses.  This  injustice  was  so  forcibly  felt,  that  the  legislature 
interfered,  and  softened,  in  some  degree,  the  injustice  of  the  first 
statute,  by  the  act  of  the  45  th  of  the  King,  which  gives  a  power  to 
the  Irish  and  English  courts  of  criminal  justice  reciprocally  to  enforce 
the  attendance  of  witnesses  from  one  kingdom  into  the  other.  The 
provisions  of  the  statute  are  express,  and  include  all  cases. 

"  And  thus,  my  lords,  by  your  lordships'  confession,  I  have  distin- 
guished this  case  from  the  authority  of  D'Eon's  case.  There  is, 
therefore,  not  a  shadow  of  reason,  authority,  or  law  for  refusing  this 
postponement,  until  we  can  procure  our  witnesses.  Even  the 
Attorney- General  admits  it,  when  he  concedes  that  the  trial  shall 
stand  over  untU  Mr.  Peele  and  Mr.  Fitzgerald  shall  arrive.  So  far 
he  cannot  controvert  our  request. 

"  But,  as  to  Sir  Charles  Saxton  and  Mr.  Pole,  he  says  the  case  is 
different.  In  what  is  the  case  different  ?  Simply  and  singly  in  this, 
that  the  Attorney  says  so — in  nothing  else.  Oh !  but,  perhaps, 
IVIr.  Peele  is  a  man  after  Mr.  Attorney-General's  own  heart 
and  that  Mr.  Pole  is  not.  I  know  of  no  other  difference  ;  and  I 
really  disdain  to  argue  a  topic  in  which  I  have  not  a  particle  of  com- 
mon sense  to  contend  against,  and  nothing  to  oppose  but  the  ipse 
dixit  of  the  Attorney-General.  Mark  the  sapient,  the  admirable 
distinction  of  this  wise  and  grave  personage.  He  teUs  the  Court  that 
the  trial  ought  to  be  postponed  till  Mr.  Peele  and  Mr.  Fitzgerald 
arrive  ;  but  that  it  ought  not  to  be  postponed  till  Sir  Charles  and 
Mr.  Pole  arrive.  What  am  I  to  combat  ?  Upon  what  is  the  Court 
to  act  ? — Upon  the  high  will  and  pleasure  of  the  Attorney- General? 
Really,  my  lords,  I  should  fear  to  insult  your  understandings  by 
detaining  you  in  exposing  the  idle  and  extravagant  nonsense  which 
attempts  to  distinguish  between  two  of  the  witnesses,  for  whom  it  is 
admitted  the  trial  must  wait,  and  for  two  others  of  them  for  whom 
it  is  insisted  that  it  shall  not  wait.  It  would  be  better  to  decide  upon 
avowed  caprice,  or  the  hazard  of  a  die,  than  upon  this  wretched 
distinction,  without  the  shadow  of  difference. 

"  I  conclude,  my  lords,  by  merely  stating  to  the  Court  what  it  is  we 
want.  It  is  merely  to  postpone  the  trial  until  the  termination  of  ihe 
session  of  parliament  shall  have  deprived  our  witnesses  of  all  excuse 
for  non-attendance.  It  is  not  suggested,  even  upon  the  faith  or  the 
credulity  of  this  James  Murphy,  that  Mr.  Magee  has  any  intention  of 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  449 

eluding  a  trial  or  of  preventing  the  due  course  of  justice.  Murphy's 
paltry  affidavit  does  not  presume  to  suggest  that  which  is  so  mani- 
festly contrary  to  truth. 

^'  Mr.  Attoi'ney-General,  indeed,  of  his  own  authority,  tells  us  that 
we  desire  to  postpone  the  trial  under  the  pretence  of  wanting  witnesses, 
whilst  in  fact  we  do  not  want  them.  I  tell  him  he  mistakes  or  mis- 
represents. We  do  not  seek  to  put  oiF  the  trial  under  any  pretence. 
We  desire  to  put  it  off  for  the  purpose  of  procuring  a  fair  and  impar- 
tial trial,  and  a  full  investigation  of  all  the  facts  of  our  defence.  We 
desire  a  fair  trial — the  Attorney-General  requires  a  trial  in  the 
absence  of  our  witnesses.  The  Court  will  decide  between  us ;  it  will 
decide  as  it  has  already  done  :  and,  perceiving  that  as  great  injustice 
and  oppression  must  follow  from  complying  with  the  Attorney- 
General's  request,  whilst  no  unfair  advantage  can  be  obtained  by  our 
motion,  it  will  again  decide  that  the  trial  shall  be  postponed,  until 
the  cause  of  the  absence  of  our  witnesses  is  removed. 

"  The  Solicitor- General  rose  and  said,  that  it  was  possible  all  the 
witnesses  might  be  able  to  attend  on  the  20th  ;  that  he  did  not  desire 
any  order  inconsistent  with  a  full,  fair,  and  impartial  investigation  of 
the  merits — God  forbid  he  should !  He  would,  therefore,  pi'opose, 
that  the  trial  should  now  stand  postponed  generally  till  the  20th ; 
and  if  then  it  should  appear  that  any  of  the  witnesses  were  prevented 
from  attending,  the  Judge  at  Nisi  Prius  Avould,  and  he  admitted 
ought  to,  postpone  the  trial  till  the  next  term. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  declared  his  perfect  satisfaction  at  what  had  fallen 
from  the  learned  Solicitor- General ;  and  a  rule  was  pronounced 
accordingly.  Thus  has  the  object  of  the  motion  been  completely 
obtained." 


The  sensation  that  this  encounter  between  Mr.  O'Connell 
and  the  Attorney- General  created  with  the  public,  can^e  best 
described  by  quoting  from  an  article  in  the  Dublin  Evening  Post 
of  a  few  days  subsequent : — 

"  The  government  prints  are  loud  in  their  complaint  of  the  Chief 
Justice  (Downes).  They  say  that  he  is  '  gustos  morum,'  and  should 
have  shielded  the  Attorney-  General  from  the  late  severity  of  Mr. 
O'Connell! 

"  We   differ   in    our    opinion  fi'om    the  scribes  of   Mr.   Saurin. 

2   G 


450  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

The  Chief  Justice  and  the  entire  bench  acted  with  the  impartiality 
which  becomes  their  situations.  No  doubt  they  felt  for  Mr.  Saurin 
— for  the  miserable  situation  into  which  he  had  brought  himself; 
but  though  they  might  feel  for  him,  they  could  not  protect  him. 

"  Mr,  Saurin  was  himself  to  blame  for  what  he  suffered.  He 
persevered  in  a  ridiculous  and  oppressive  opposition,  after  the 
unanimous  disapprobation  of  the  Court  of  King's  Bench,  previously 
expressed.  He  wished  to  bring  the  proprietor  of  this  paper  to  trial 
in  the  absence  of  material  witnesses.  Law,  reason,  and  humanity 
■were  against  the  Attorney-General. 

"  Mr.  Phillips  briefly  but  forcibly  stated  the  application.  The 
Attorney-General  opposed  it  in  a  long  '  law  argument.'  He  cited 
the  case  of  the  Chevalier  D'Eon.  There  was  not  a  point  of  resem- 
blance between  the  case  of  the  Chevalier  D'Eon  and  the  King  against 
Magee.  The  Court  of  King's  Bench  observed,  with  pain,  the  Attorney- 
General  floundering  through  his  lengthy  drawl.  If  Mr.  Saurin  will 
not  put  ideas  in  his  words,  he  must  not  complain  that  he  does  not 
influence  the  Bench.  Mr.  Phillips,  a  very  young  man,  made  the 
application  within  the  space  of  seven  minutes.  Mr.  Saurin  took 
forty-five  minutes  to  reply  to  him !  The  Bench  did  not  think  it 
necessary  to  hear  any  one  in  reply  to  Mr.  Saurin.  He  had  sufficiently 
answered  himself.  They  ruled  against  him  vmanimously,  and 
granted  the  motion  of  Mr.  Phillips. 

*'  This  was  a  strong  rebuke  to  Mr.  Saurin.  It  is  always  a  strong 
rebuke  to  a  lawyer,  when  the  Court,  after  a  long  speech,  decline  to 
hear  any  reply,  and  rule  against  him  instanter.,  and  unanimously. 
Why  did  not  the  Attorney- General  profit  by  this  rebuke  ?  He  did 
not ;  but  renewed  his  opposition.  He  calls  upon  the  Court  to  reverse 
their  own  decision ;  and,  because  they  will  not,  his  scribe  assaults 
the  Chief  Justice  through  the  columns  of  the  Patriot  ! 

"  Mr.  Saurin  and  his  scribe  complain  of  harsh  treatment  and 
'  ungentlemannee'  conduct!  Many  a  time  has  the  interest  of  a  client 
been  sacrificed  to  what  is  called  ^ gentlemannee'  conduct.  Mr.  Saurin 
ought  not  to  complain.  Mr.  Saurin  is  a  man  of  a  very  mild 
demeanour ;  and  yet  he  has  said  as  many  wicked  things,  as  many 
harsh  and  severe  things,  as  any  man  now  in  Ireland.  No  man  should 
be  more  slow  in  getting  into  a  warm  altercation  than  Mr.  Saurin, 
for  no  man  is  less  able  to  take  himself  out  of  it.  When  he  gets 
angry,  he  is  unable  to  conceal  or  express  it.  He  should  never  assault, 
for  he  cannot  defend  himself  against  retort. 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  451 

"  Mr.  Saurin  ouglit  to  beai'  his  late  suiferings — he  ought  not  to 
complain  of  them.  He  began — he  gave  the  provocation.  He  said^ 
on  the  first  motion,  that  Mr.  Magee  had  sworn  rashly,  and  that  it 
was  nonsensical  in  his  lawyers  to  advise  him  that  those  witnesses 
were  material.  All  this  was  very  wrong  in  Mr.  Saurin.  Is  no  one 
to  have  feelings  but  him  ?  Shall  there  be  no  sympathy  but  for  Mr. 
Saurin  ?  Must  Mr.  Magee  and  his  bar  of  lawyers  quietly  lie  down 
under  this  imputation  ?  No  ;  it  was  answered  by  Mr.  Finlay.  On 
behalf  of  the  bar  who  advised  Mr.  Magee,  he  said  that  '  any  man 
of  that  bar,  the  humblest  man  of  that  bar,  was  as  incapable  of 
advising  any  man  to  the  crime  of  swearing  a  rash  oath,  as  the 
Attorney- General  himself.'  And,  with  respect  to  Mr.  Magee,  he 
said  to  Mr.  Saurin,  that  in  the  purest  hour  of  his  life,  he,  Mr. 
Saurin,  was  as  capable  of  swearing  a  rash  oath  as  the  man  against 
whom  he  had  directed  the  unworthy  and  groundless  imputation ! 

"  Was  the  Court  to  interfere  for'  the  protection  of  the  Attorney- 
General,  against  an  attack  provoked  by  indignation,  at  his  presuming 
to  set  up  his  own  assertion  against  the  uncontradicted  oath  of  a 
respectable  gentleman  ? 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  objected  to  his  using  the  indictment  on  the 
motion,  because  the  crown  had  given  no  notice  that  they  would  make 
use  of  that  instrument,  and  of  course  the  defendant  was  unprepared 
with  a  copy  in  his  hands  to  correct  any  misstatement  which  the 
Attorney-General  might  make.  But  when  the  Atttorney- General 
did  begin  to  quote  from  the  instrument,  why  should  he  not  have 
made  his  quotations  fairly  and  truly.  He  said  Mr.  Magee  was 
indicted  as  proprietor  of  a  newspaper.  Mr.  O'Connell  denied  the 
fact,  and  appealed  to  the  indictment.  The  Attorney-General  said 
that  he  was  indicted  for  calling  the  Duke  a  murderer.  Mr. 
O'Connell  denied  the  fact,  and  appealed  to  the  indictment.  Does 
Mr.  Saurin's  station  give  him  a  patent  for  asserting  things  not  true  ? 
And  must  it  be  deemed  insolence  in  others  to  bind  him  to  the  law 
and  the  fact  ? 

*'  The  Court  could  not  have  protected  Mr.  Saurin,  because,  in  the 
honest  feeling  of  impartiality,  they  felt  that  he  deserved  more  than 
he  suflered,  and  that  he  had  provoked  all  that  he  had  received." 

Symptoms  of  more  divisions  among  the  members  of  the  board 
showed  themselves  on  the  10th  of  July,  when  letters  were 
handed  in  by  the  secretary,  Edward  Hay,  from   Francis  Goold 


452  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

and  Mr.    James  O' Gorman,  which  were  understood  to  contain 
personal  attacks. 

On  this  ground,  Mr.  Mahon  objected  to  their  being  publicly 
read. 


"  Mr.  O'Connell  said,  that  if  the  fact  was  as  had  been  stated 
(but  he  was  very  loth  to  believe  that  these  letters  of  Sir  Francis 
Goold  and  Mr.  James  O' Gorman  contained  attacks  upon  individuals), 
they  ought  not  to  be  published  without  having  undergone  a  previous 
inquiry.  For  Mr.  O'Gorman  he  had  a  very  sincere  regard,  and 
claimed  his  friendship  ;  but  on  a  general  principle  he  made  this 
objection.  The  pi'inciple  was  this,  that  if  any  person  were  at  liberty 
to  attact  others  by  letter,  it  might  be  done  with  impunity.  A  person  in 
India,  for  example,  might  thus  assail  either  of  those  gentlemen,  the 
learned  baronet  or  Mr.  O'Gorman,  or  any  other  member  of  the 
board.  The  individuals  thus  attacked  would  have  no  opportunity  of 
righting  themselves,  by  inflicting  that  chastisement  which  an  unfounded 
and  insolent  letter  might  merit.  (Applause.)  It  was  on  this  prin- 
ciple, and  without  any  allusion  to  the  present  letters,  that  he  would 
support  Mr.  Mahon's  motion. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  took  the  present  opportunity  to  state  a  fact  whicli 
had  just  come  to  his  knowledge.  The  question  of  religious  liberty 
had  been  debated  in  the  Presbyterian  Synod  of  Ulster  a  few  days 
back  ;  it  was  introduced  by  that  venerable  and  enlightened  advocate 
of  liberty  of  conscience,  the  Rev.  Steele  Dixon;  and,  after  a  full 
and  ample  discussion,  it  was  carried  with  the  most  perfect  triumph. 

"  One  hundred  and  thirty  of  the  clergy  and  elders  of  the  Preby- 
terian  Church,  loudly  and  unanimously  declared  themselves  in  favour 
of  extending  religious  freedom  to  every  man  ;  eight  only  opposed  it, 
and  those  eight  have  since  expressed  their  regret,  that  motives  of 
respect  and  difference  for  the  opinions  of  some  noble  lords,  &c., 
(motives  with  them)  had  been  the  occasion  of  their  opposition,  but 
that  in  sentiment  they  fully  accorded  with  the  majority.  Therefore, 
the  transactions  of  that  day  must  be  considered  a  great  and  signal 
triumph,  not  simply  for  the  cause  of  the  Catholics,  but  for  that  of  all 
those  who  suffer  for  a  conscientious  adherence  to  the  creed  they 
believe  best. 

"  He  would  prefer  giving  notice  of  a  motion  of  thanks  to  the  Synod, 
to  be  passed  next  Saturday,  to  proposing  it  at  the  present  moment. 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    W.P.  453 

though  he  was  certain  if  he  were  to  do  so,  it  would  be  carried  witlx 
acclamation,  and  no  person  found  to  enforce  the  standing  order  ;  but 
he  chose  to  postpone  it  till  next  meeting,  that  it  might  come  with  that 
dignity  and  weight,  which  a  regular  notice  and  a  week's  deliberation 
would  bestow  upon  it.  (This  notice  was  received  with  the  loudest 
approbation.) 

"  Mr.  M'Donnell  brought  forward  an  address  to  Henry  G rattan. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  fully  agreed  in  the  princii^le  of  gratitude  to  Mr. 
Grattan  which  the  address  conveyed ;  but  at  this  moment  above  all 
others,  it  was  necessary  that  they  should  be  distinctly  understood. 
He  said  it  came  highly  recommended  when  offered  by  the  most 
respectable  gentleman  who  had  proposed  it,  but  still  there  were  some 
phrases  in  it  which,  he  was  bound  to  say,  he  could  wish  to  see  altered. 

"We  could  not  (he  continued)  be  sufficiently  profuse  in  the 
expressions  of  'gratitude  and  veneration  for  that  distinguished 
character.  It  was  impossible  to  do  justice  to  a  name  which  was  the 
boast  and  glory  of  every  Ii'ishman.     (Hear,  hear.) 

"  The  splendour  of  Grattan's  talents  had  been  eclipsed  by  the  noble 
integrity  of  his  heart ;  and  he  was  the  brightest  ornament  of  his 
native  land,  which  he  had  so  eminently  served.  If  she  had  fallen 
again,  and  had  again  to  commence  the  career  of  national  freedom,  no 
fault  could  be  attributed  to  Henry  Grattan,  who  had  waked  her  first 
to  independence,  and  fought  the  manly  and  the  good  fight  for  her 
liberties.  His  eloquence  could  never  have  been  equalled ;  but  if  the 
other  anti-Unionists  had  equalled  him  in  other  points — if  they  had 
caught  one  spark  of  his  valour,  Ireland  would  not  now  be  a  province, 
nor  would  stupidity  and  heavy  ignorance  have  battled  their  way  to 
judicial  station,  and  profited  by  the  extinction  of  our  country ! 

"  With  these  sentiments  warm  and  glowing  in  my  breast,  I  have 
at  the  same  time  another  duty — a  more  sacred  duty — the  duty  I  owe 
to  Ireland. 

"  It  consists  in  having  her  cause — for  the  cause  of  religious  liberty 
is  her  cause — brought  forward  in  the  only  manner  that  can  be  deemed 
compatible  with  our  interest,  and  with  our  honour.  I  do,  therefore, 
with  great  respect,  beg  leave  entirely  to  controvert  the  assertion  of 
my  friend  Mr.  M'Donnell.  I  beg  leave  to  deny  that  Mr.  Grattan 
has  done  the  best  he  could  for  us,  during  the  present  session. 

"Was  it  the  best  to  agree  to  the  double  Veto  ?  Was  it  the  best  to 
consent,  that  the  secretary's  clei'k  at  the  Castle  should  have  the 
nomination  of  the  hitherto,  and  now  venerated  and  venerable  prelacy 


454  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

of  Ireland  ?  Was  it  the  best  to  talk  of  securities  ?  To  countenance 
that  insult  alike  to  our  understandings,  and  to  our  hearts — that  insult 
which  says,  that  in  subjection  and  in  degradation,  the  Catholics  will 
continue  faithful,  but  that  from  participation  in  the  benefits  of  the 
constitution,  disloyalty  is  to  ensue — and  hence,  that  '  securities'  are 
requisite  ! ! 

"  I  will  not  follow  this  exasperating  topic  ;  but  I  will  say,  that 
the  sacred  duty  that  I  owe  to  this  '  mine  own,  my  native  land,' 
impels  me  to  say,  that  Henry  Grattan  was  greatly  and  grievously 
mistaken  in  this  session  of  parliament. 

"  I  only  require  that  we  should  reconcile  these  concurrent  duties. 
Let  us  thank  Grattan  with  all  the  veins  of  our  hearts,  but  let  us  not 
use  a  single  expression  which  can,  by  any  construction  whatsoever, 
be  tortured  into  any  approbation  of  the  late  very  mistaken  and  mis- 
chievous bill.  I  do  not  require,  nor  would  I  consent,  that  any  trace  of 
ill-humour  or  reproach  should  be  found  in  our  address  ;  but  I  would 
wish  that  you  should  suggest  to  him  his  former  glories  in  the  cause 
of  '  SIMPLE  REPEAL,'*  and  entreat  of  him  again  to  adopt  for  the 
motto  of  his  country,   and  her  watchword  in  the  war  of  parliament) 

'  SIMPLE    REPEAL  !'       (CllCerS.) 

"  I  am  anxious  to  infix  this  truth  on  the  minds  of  all  our  parlia- 
mentary friends,  that  it  is  for  the  great  principle  of  religious  liberty 
that  we  contend,  and  not  for  individual  advantages  to  the  Catholic 
body.  Let  the  sentiment  be  the  main  idea  of  every  address,  as  well 
as  of  every  petition ;  and  though  we  may  be  defeated,  we  shall  never 
again  be  disgraced  ! 

"  I  would,  under  these  circumstances,  earnestly  press  upon  my 
esteemed  friend  to  postpone  the  address  to  Mr.  Grattan  for  the 
present;  to  consent  to  have  it  referred  to  the  sub-committee,  in  order 
to  have  it  modelled  upon  the  principle  and  in  the  manner  that  I 
suggest.  It  will  not  be  the  less  complimentary  to  Mr.  Grattan  for 
being  the  work  of  deliberation,  and  it  clearly  will  be  moi'e  useful  and 
more  honourable  to  ourselves. 

*  Alluiiiug  to  the  discussions  of  1782,  when  the  question  was,  whether  the 
Irish  parliament  would  consider  its  independence  sufficiently  vindicated,  and 
asserted  by  the  mere  repeal  of  the  Act  of  the  English  parliament  in  the  sixth 
year  of  the  reign  of  George  the  First,  by  which  the  latter  claimed  and  usurped 
legislative  authority  over  Ireland,  or  whether  an  express  renunciation  of  this 
usurped  legislative  authority  should  be  insisted  on. 

Grattan  was  for  "  suwp/e  Repeal,"  Flood  for  the  express  renunciation.  The 
first  was  obtained  in  1782,  and  the  second,  the  year  after,  viz.,  1783,  by  the 
23d  Geoi-ge  III.,  ciiapter  28,  declaring  our  legislative  and  judicial  indepen- 
dence  "ESTABLISHED   fOR   EVER"  !  !  ! 


DANIKL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.l".  455 

"  Upon  this  subject  let  us  not  have — I  trust  we  shall  not  have — 
any  division.  Our  country  has  suffered  for  centuries  from  degrada- 
tion and  oppression,  brought  on  her,  and  perpetuated  by  her  internal 
divisions.  First,  the  Irish  were  divided  amongst  themselves ;  then 
the  English  were  divided  from  the  Irish  ;  then  followed  the  long- 
cherished  divisions  between  the  Catholics  and  the  Protestants  ;  and 
now  yet  another  division  is  encouraged  by  the  government.  Every 
individual  in  the  Catholic  body,  whom  the  administration  can  in- 
fluence, either  directly  or  indirectly,  is  separated  from  the  Catholic 
prelates  and  the  people.  An  endeavour  was  made  to  control  us  ;  it 
failed,  and  now  the  plan  is  secession.  For  my  part,  I  rejoice  at  the 
secession  of  those  who  desire  to  gratify  themselves,  and  not  to  serve 
their  country. 

"  But  whom  do  we  miss  ?  I  do  not  perceive  the  deficiency.  Our 
meetings,  as  it  appears  to  me,  have  never  been  so  crowded  with  the 
health,  and  strength,  and  independence  of  the  body,  as  since  the  last 
and  poorest  attempt  to  stay  our  majestic  onward  course  towards  the 
temple  of  concord  and  freedom.  (Cheers.) 

"  Let  us,  then,  concur  in  the  two  leading  features  of  this  address — 
gratitude — eternal  gratitude  to  Grattan  ;  fidelity — unalterable  fide- 
lity to  our  country.  To  combine  both,  I  move  that  the  address 
which  has  been  this  day  brought  forward  and  read  by  Mr.  M'Donnell, 
be  referred  to  the  sub-committee  to  report  upon  this  day  week." 

After  a  conversation  of  some  length  between  Mr.  O'  Connell 
and  Mr.  Mahon,  Dr.  Dromgoole  and  Mr.  O' Gorman,  this 
was  agreed  to,  as  were  also  resolutions  to  postpone  until  De- 
cember, the  intended  dinner  to  the  friends  of  religious  freedom, 
and  to  thank  the  Duke  of  Sussex  for  his  opposition  to  the 
Orange  organization  in  England. 

"IRISH  MANUFACTURE. 

"  Mr.  0' Connell  brought  forward  his  promised  motions  on  this 
subject.  They  are  three  in  number.  He  prefaced  each  resolution 
by  appropriate  and  pointed  obsei'vations. 

"  The  first  resolution  is,  that  no  member  be  allowed  to  speak  or 
vote  at  the  board  after  the  1  st  of  August,  who  shall  not  be  cloathed 
in  Irish  manufacture. 


456  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

"  The  second,  lliat  the  ladies  of  Ireland  be  entreated  to  encourage 
the  wear  of  their  native  manufacture,  and  not  to  introduce  any  other. 

"  The  third,  that  a  committee  of  seven  be  appointed,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  calling  upon  the  Protestant  gentlemen  of  the  country  to  form 
'  Ah  Association  for  the  encouragement  of  consumption  of  Irish 
Manufactured  The  resolutions  were  all  received  with  loud  ap- 
plause, and  were  passed  by  acclamation." 

The  following  gentlemen  were  then  appointed  upon  this 
committee : — 

Mr.  O'Connell,  Counsellors  O'Gorman  and 
Mr.  Richard  O'Gorman,  Finn,  and 

Doctor  Sheridan,  R.  O'Bryan,  Esq. 

E.  Cox,  Esq. 

Mr.  O'Connell  then  moved  that  his  resolutions  should  be 
printed  in  the  liberal  papers  of  Dublin,  and  in  the  liberal  prints 
of  Limerick,  Cork,  Waterford,  Kilkenny,  and  Clonmel,  and  in 
a  Belfast  paper. 

This  was  also  agreed  to,  and  the  meeting  adjourned. 

On  Tuesday,  the  20th  July,  Mr.  Saurin  moved  the  Court  of 
King's  Bench,  "  that  the  case  of  the  King  against  Magee,  in 
consequence  of  the  continued  absence  of  Messrs.  Fitzgerald, 
Pole,  Peele,  and  Sir  Charles  Saxton,  witnesses  for  the  defen- 
dant, should  stand  over  to  Monday,  the  26th,"  which  was 
accordingly  granted. 

On  the  preceding  Saturday,  the  ITth  of  July,  the  address  to 
Mr.  Grattan  was  reported  to  the  Catholic  board  by  its  original 
proposer,  Mr.  M'Donnell. 

In  the  course  of  his  speech  on  this  occasion,  he  alluded  to  the 
continued  absence  of  several  members  of  the  board,  who  had 
formerly  been  constant  attendants,  and  had  taken  an  active  part 
in  its  proceedings. 

This  allusion  had  reference  chiefly  to  the  parties  who  had 
made  themselves  prominent  in  opposing  the  vote  of  thanks  to 
the  Catholic  bishops,  and  who,  since  the  triumphant  carrying  of 
that  motion  in  aoofregate  meeting,  had  secluded  themselves  in 
high  dudgeon  at  their  well-merited  discomfiture. 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  457 

The  adoption  of  the  address,  which  had  been  altered,  as 
agreed  upon,  at  the  preceding  meeting,  and,  therefore,  while 
highly  complimentary  to  Mr.  Grattan,  contained  nothing  that 
could  be  held  to  involve  any  species  of  tolerance  towards  the 
"  securities'  of  his  "  Relief"  Bill,  was  seconded  by  Mr. 
O'Connell. 

"  He  said,  that  in  seconding  this  address,  he  did  not  think  it 
necessary  to  take  up  one  moment  in  recommending  it  to  the  board. 
He  relied  upon  its  being  carried  with  the  most  perfect  unanimity  ; 
and  when  he  rose  to  second  it,  he  only  meant  to  give  it  all  the 
strength  which  his  individual  expression  of  the  gratitude  due  by 
Ireland  to  Mr.  Grattan  could  impart. 

"  No  man  in  the  community  felt  more  sensibly  the  great 
debt  which  we  all  owe  to  Mr.  Grattan  than  he  did ;  and  he  was 
happy  that  he  could  make  ample  acknowledgment  of  its  justice 
and  magnitude,  without  conceding  either  his  religion  or  the  steady 
principle  of  simple  repeal,  upon  which  alone  the  Catholics  were 
determined  to  stand.  The  clauses,  the  arrangements,  the  details, 
the  provisions,  the  enactments,  the  restrictions,  which  would  deprive 
the  Irish  people  of  the  one,  and  which  were  totally  inconsistent  with 
the  other,  were  not  of  Mr.  Grattan's  invention.  These  subjects 
were  not  now  touched  upon  with  any  retrospective  view.  The 
address  speaks  prophetically.  It  tells  Mr.  Grattan  that  he  has 
always  had  the  hearts  of  the  Irish  people,  and  that  in  future  he  shall 
have  their  full  judgments. 

"  It  was  immaterial  whether  their  petition  should  succeed  in  the 
next  session  or  not ;  the  cause  was  proceeding  with  a  rapid  and 
steady  pace,  gaining  daily  additional  strength  as  it  went  along.  He 
was  sorry  that  he  could  not  agree  with  his  most  respectable  friend, 
Mr.  M'Donnell,  in  any  part  of  the  late  bill.  It  was  unnecessary, 
after  the  very  powerful  manner  in  which  that  gentleman  had  con- 
demned the  interference  with  the  clergy,  to  say  anything  upon  that 
part  of  the  bill ;  the  sentiments  expressed  by  Mr.  M'Donnell  were 
only  those  of  the  public  in  general,  and  any  feeble  cry  that  has  been 
attempted  to  be  raised  in  favour  of  the  clauses,  only  made  the  ex- 
pression of  this  feeling  the  more  marked.  But  he  was  bound  to 
say,  that  none,  even  of  the  political  enactments  of  the  bill,  deserved 
approbation. 

"  He  entreated  his  respected  friend  to  permit  the  legal  men  of  the 


458  MEMOHl    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

board,  merely  as  barristers  (if  not  lawyers),  to  declai*e  their  opinion 
upon  it,  as  upon  matter  of  law.  And  this  opinion  he  unequivocally 
declared  was,  that  the  bill,  had  it  passed  into  a  law,  would  have  been 
totally  inefficient — would  have  done  nothing.  In  the  House  of  Com- 
mons and  in  the  higher  ranks  of  the  army,  some  trifling  benefit 
might  have  accrued  from  it  to  a  few  ambitious  Catholics,  but  in 
respect  to  the  great  mass  of  the  people,  they  would  have  gained 
nothing  by  it.  Taxation  without  representation,  and  the  numerous 
other  crying  grievances  which  they  endure,  would  have  been  left 
wholly  unaffected  by  its  operation.  This  he  asserted  as  the  opinion 
of  the  barristers  of  the  Catholic  board,  and  if  it  shall  be  contradicted 
by  anything  like  argument  in  the  public  papers,  he  pledged  himself 
to  support  the  assertion. 

"  There  was  now  upon  the  table  an  abstract  of  the  bill,  which  had 
been  prepared  by  Mr.  Charles  Butler  for  the  emancipation  of  the 
Catholics  :  and  he  felt  himself  bound  to  say,  that  he  had  never  met 
anything  which  appeared  to  have  been  drawn  up  in  more  complete 
ignorance  of  the  penal  laws  which  aggrieve  the  Catholics  of  Ii'eland, 
and  that  if  it  had  passed  into  a  law,  it  would  have  been  totally 
useless.  Mr.  Butler  (he  said)  is  an  expert  penman,  who  writes 
a  great  deal,  and  if  he  shall  contradict  in  print  his  (Mr.  O'Connell's) 
assertion,  he  will,  for  the  information  of  the  gentleman  and  the 
public,  quote  the  statutes  which  would  render  his  bill  a  nullity. 

"  He  (Mr.  O'Connell)  spoke  this  that  the  people  might  know  that 
bad  bills  had  been  prepared  ;  and  for  the  purpose  of  informing  any 
known  person,  who  took  an  interest  in  the  affairs  of  the  Catholics, 
that  if  a  bill  for  their  emancipation  was  wanted,  and  the  board  were 
to  be  called  upon  to  produce  one,  the  frame  of  such  a  bill  was  ready, 
and  should  be  instantly  produced." 

Mr.  O' Gorman  again  introduced  his  motion  for  the  address 
to  the  Spanish  Cortes,  and  moved  for  a  committee  on  the 
subject. 

"  CATHOLIC  BOARD— SPANISH  CORTES. 
"  Mr.  O'Connell  (says  the  leading  article  of  the  Freeman^ s  Jour- 
nal  of  Monday,"  July  19,  1813),  argued,  at  much  length,  in  favour  of 
the  policy  of  the  measure,  and  took  occasion  to  answer  three  objections 
to  it  which  were  urged  by  many  out  of  doors,  and  by  one,  among 
the  rest,  who  was,  from  a  multitude  of  reasons,  which  were  peculiar 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,  M.P.  459 

to  himself,  deserving  of  the  most  profound  attention  and  respect,  his 
Royal  Highness  the  Duke  of  Sussex. 

"  The  first  objection  he  stated  was,  that  the  measure  would  be  going 
out  of  the  line  of  petitioning,  and  subjecting  the  board  to  the  pre- 
tence and  purpose  of  imputation  of  the  enemies  of  emancipation. 
The  second  was,  that  it  was  calculated  to  afford  the  opponents  of 
emancipation  ground  for  cavilling  on  the  score  of  foreign  influence. 
And  the  third,  that  it  proposed  a  violation  of  the  spirit  of  the 
constitution,  inasmuch  as  it  sought  an  irregular  and  illegal  inter- 
ference of  the  executive  branch  in  the  peculiar  province  of  the 
legislature. 

"  The  substance  of  Mr.  O'Connell's  answer  to  the  first  of  these 
objections  was,  that  applying  to  the  allies  of  G-reat  Britain  for  their 
intercession,  was  not  more  out  of  the  line  of  emancipation,  by  legal 
and  constitutional  means,  than  applying  to  any  subject,  or  class  of 
subjects,  of  Great  Britain — such,  for  instance,  as  Mr.  Grattan,  or  the 
Synod  of  Ulster — for  their  assistance  ;  and  that  the  quibbling  of 
pretence  and  purpose  had  entirely  ceased  since  the  Attorney-General, 
by  prosecuting  the  delegates,  had  converted  the  committee  into  a 
board,  and  satisfied  himself  that  they  were  not  what  they  never  pre- 
tended to  be — a  representative  body. 

"  The  answer  to  the  second  was,  that  the  foreign  influence  involved 
was  exactly  the  opposite  to  that  which  was  ever  apprehended  by  any 
of  the  opponents  of  emancipation  ;  it  was  not  a  foreign  power  in- 
fluencing the  Irish  Catholics,  but  it  was  the  Irish  Catholics  influenc- 
ing a  foreign  power. 

"  The  answer  to  the  third  was,  that  though  it  might  seem  at  first 
sight  a  sort  of  violation  of  the  brilliant  theory  of  the  constitution, 
yet  it  was,  in  fact,  in  entire  conformity  with  every  day's  practice. 
No  session  of  parliament  sits  without  producing  a  recommendation 
from  the  executive.  And  surely  it  was  this  kind  of  interference  on 
the  part  of  his  Majesty  in  1793,  which  produced  the  important  ex- 
tension of  privilege  which  the  Catholics  now  enjoy." 

The  pressure  of  prior  business  at  this  meeting  compelled  a 
postponement  of  the  motion  of  Mr.  O'Connell,  relative  to  the 
Presbyterian  Synod  of  Ulster. 

"  On  the  succeeding  Saturday  he,  however,  brought  it  forward. 
He  said  he  had  to  call  upon  the  board  to  carry  out  their  intention  of 


460  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

thanking  that  very  important  body,  the  Synod  of  Ulster,  for  the  late 
vote  of  the  members  composing  it,  in  favour  of  religious  liberty.  The 
learned  gentleman  (say  the  reports  of  the  Post  and  Freeman,)  pre- 
faced the  motion  by  a  speech  of  some  length,  and  delivered  it  with  his 
wonted  eloquence.  He  touched  upon  a  variety  of  topics,  having 
reference  to,  or  bearing  upon,  the  subject  matter  of  his  motion.  The 
late  decision  of  the  Synod  of  Ulster  he  considered  perfectly  unani- 
mous, for  the  eight  individuals  who  had  opposed  have  since  that  time 
declared,  that  in  sentiment  and  feeling,  they  were  in  perfect  accord- 
ance with  the  majority. 

"  He  looked  upon  it  as  one  of  the  most  important,  auspicious,  and 
gratifying  events  which  had  occui'red  for  a  considerable  period. 
Divisions  had  ever  been  the  ruin  of  Ireland;  they  yet  pui-sued  and 
scourged  her  ;  but  the  declai*ation  of  the  Synod  of  Ulster,  in  favour 
of  religious  liberty,  was  an  earnest,  he  hoped,  for  the  banishment  of 
them  from  amongst  us  in  future.  It  Avas  not  to  be  expected,  how- 
ever, that  an  evil,  which  had  not  only  been  suffered  to  exist,  but  had 
actually  been  encouraged,  and,  in  consequence,  had  grown  to  a 
melancholy  extent  indeed,  should  be  all  at  once  overcome. 

"  The  Synod  of  Ulster  had  done  their  part.  They  had  set  a  noble 
example :  let  it  be  met  by  a  corresponding  spirit,  and  be  imitated 
throughout  the  country. 

"  The  enemies  of  Ireland  having  had  long  experience  of  the  efficacy 
of  divisions  in  forwarding  their  purposes,  had  never  lost  sight  of 
promoting  them.  There  were  two  sorts  of  divisions,  which  were 
peculiarly  fatal,  and  should  be  guarded  against  with  the  utmost 
care.  One — the  lesser  kind — was,  divisions  amongst  the  Catholics 
themselves  ;  the  other — and  the  greater — was,  that  which  would 
separate  the  Presbyterian,  the  Quaker,  and  all  the  other  numerous 
classes  of  Dissenters  from  the  Catholics,  and  from  each  other. 

"  "With  respect  to  the  first  kind  of  division,  he  was  proud  to  say, 
that  the  great  body  of  the  Irish  Catholics  were  unanimous  in  their 
determination  to  knock  at  the  gate  of  the  temple  of  liberty,  and  tem- 
perately, but  firmly,  and  with  the  port  of  men,  demand  admittance. 
Knowing  this  to  be  the  spirit  which  animated  the  body,  he  was 
prepared  to  say,  that  if  any  Catholic,  no  matter  what  were  his  rank 
and  property,  seceded  from  them,  he  only  made  an  outlaw  of  himself, 
and  inflicted  no  injury  upon  the  cause. 

"  And  with  respect  to  the  second  kind  of  division,  the  declaration 
of  the  Synod  of  Ulster  was  a  gratifying  proof,  that  good  sense,  reason, 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P,  461 

and  patriotism  were  beginning  to  triumph  over  the  distractions  which 
had  so  long  disfigured  Ireland. 

"  It  was  with  pain  he  found  himself  compelled  to  say  that  many  of 
the  clergy  of  the  Established  Church  were  very  hostile  to  the  just 
claims  of  their  fellow-countrymen  and  fellow-Christians,  who  sought 
liberty  to  worship  God  according  to  the  dictates  of  their  consciences. 
This  was  particularly  observable  during  the  late  elections.  "Where- 
soever a  gentleman,  whose  principles  were  tolerant,  appeared  as  a 
candidate,  he  was  sure  to  be  encountered  by  a  host  of  the  votes  of  the 
clergy.  Dr.  St.  Lawrence  and  that  gallopping,  preaching  gentleman, 
his  son,  were  proofs  of  this  when,  at  Cork,  they  strenuously  opposed 
Mr.  Hely  Hutchinson.  It  was  true,  there  were  many  illustrious  ex- 
ceptions which  only  proved  the  general  rule. 

"  It  was  gratifying,  however,  to  remark,  that  this  illiberality  was 
confined  to  the  clergy,  and  even  amongst  them  to  the  beneficed  ones. 
The  laity — the  respectable  and  uninfluenced  laity — were  all  favour- 
able to  the  rights  of  their  fellow-men  and  fellow-subjects  ;  but, 
while  this  afforded  matter  for  warm  congratulation,  it  was  impossible 
to  avoid  regretting,  that  the  practice  of  the  established  clergy  should 
be  so  widely  different  from  those  doctrines  of  peace  and  charity 
which  they  are  so  liberally  paid  for  teaching.  He  was  willing  to 
hope,  notwithstanding  all  that  could  be  done,  their  efforts  and  the 
efforts  of  those  who  set  them  in  motion,  would  prove  ineffectual ; 
that  every  odious  distinction  would  be  obliterated ;  and  that  every 
man  in  this  country  would  be  ambitious  for  one  title,  and  one  title 
only,  that  of  Irishmen  !     (Loud  cheering.) 

"  The  Synod  of  Ulster  talks  of  the  constitution.  He  perfectly 
agreed  with  the  Synod,  in  what  it  had  said  in  that  respect.  All  he 
required,  all  the  Catholics  required,  was  Emancipation  to  the  extent 
of  the  constitution  ! — Emancipation  agreeable  to  the  pri7iciples  of 
the  revolution  !  Those  principles  were  plain,  indisputable,  and  well 
understood — they  were  liberty  to  the  people  to  choose  their  own 
religion  and  their  governors.  The  Catholics  merely  seek  religious 
freedom.  The  revolutionists  changed  their  king,  because  he  was 
not  of  the  religion  of  the  people,  and  refused  to  be  governed  by  any 
person  who  would  not  adopt  that  religion.  The  Catholics,  however, 
seek  no  such  change,  and  nothing  beyond  what  he  had  said. 

"  He  had  but  one  observation  more.  The  great  object  of  his  life, 
and  that  which  he  had  in  view  at  present,  was  to  defeat  and  put 
down  any  man  who  should  attempt  to  excite  discontent,  or  disloyalty, 


462  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

or  disunion  amongst  the  people.  Union  and  harmony  were  the  great 
and  healing  balsams  which  he  wished  and  hoped  to  see  applied  to 
the  wounds  of  his  country. 

*'  Mr.  O'Connell  concluded  with  the  following  resolution  : — 

"  Resolved — '  That  our  warmest  gratitude  is  due  to  the  clergymen  and  elders 
composing  the  Very  Reverend  Board  the  Synod  of  Ulster — for  the  patriotism 
which  suggested,  and  the  cordiality  which  has  accompanied  their  late  declara- 
tions in  favour  of  religious  liberty. 

* '  *  And  we  trust,  that  the  spirit  of  fraternal  aflfection  will  thus  be  renewed 
amongst  all  classes  of  Irishmen.' 

"IRISH  MANUFACTURE. 

*'  Mr.  Fyans  begged  to  call  the  attention  of  the  board  to  the  state  of 
the  cotton  manufacture.  Numbers  of  most  industrious,  honest,  and 
praiseworthy  families,  are  at  this  moment  plunged  in  the  utmost 
misery,  from  the  cotton  manufacturers  being  unable  to  afford  them 
employment,  in  consequence  of  the  superabundance  of  goods  on 
hands.  He  was  sure  that  Irishmen  would  be  glad  to  seize  the 
opportunity  of  rescuing  these  manufacturers  from  the  imminent 
wretchedness  with  which  they  were  surrounded,  particularly  when 
it  could  be  done,  not  only  without  loss,  but  with  absolute  advantage. 

"  What  he  wished  was,  that  the  committee  of  Irish  manufacture 
might  be  directed  to  take  particularly  into  their  consideration,  the 
state  of  the  cotton  trade,  and  to  recommend,  and  take  measures  to 
promote  the  consumption  of  muslins,  calicoes,  and  corduroys.  If 
these  articles  were  at  all  patronised,  the  working  classes  who  were 
very  well  disposed,  would  be  quiet,  happy,  and  contented ;  their 
numerous  families  preserved  from  the  deplorable  consequences  that 
want  will  not  fail  to  produce  ;  and  the  purchaser,  along  with  the 
happiness  of  having  contributed  to  effect  these  meritorious  objects, 
will  make  a  saving  of  thirty  per  cent.     (Great  applause.) 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  moved  that  Mr.  Fyan's  name  be  added  to  the 
committee,  which  being  carried,  the  learned  gentleman  went  on* 
He  said,  that  he  regretted  much  to  find,  that  opposition  had  been 
made  to  the  consumption  of  the  cotton  manufacture,  even  by  persons 
engaged  in  this  traffic.  This  arose  from  confined  and  narrow  views, 
and  he  trusted,  would  be  overcome.  But  he  thought,  it  was  useless 
for  the  Catholic  board  to  speak,  if  it  did  not  act.  It  would  be  guilty 
of  a  great  crime  indeed,  if,  after  promising  those  poor  people  to  find 
work  for  them,   it  were  to  content  itself   with  the   mere   promise, 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  463 

instead  of  the  performance.  With  this  impression  upon  his  mind, 
he  was  anxious  to  bring  forward  some  measure  which  might  give 
effect  to  the  resolutions  already  passed.  The  cotton  manufacturers, 
in  particular,  were  suffering  the  extreme  of  misery.  The  present 
period  of  the  year  is  that  which  their  fabrics  may  best  be  used  ; 
and  he  had  reason  to  know  that  if  the  sale  of  English  goods  were 
to  be  suspended  but  for  one  day  in  this  city,  and  that  of  Irish  sub- 
stituted, there  would  not  be  a  single  piece  of  goods  left  on  hands  ! 
It  was  idle  for  gentlemen  to  talk  of  public  spirit,  and  of  patriotism, 
or  even  of  common  humanity,  if  the  knowledge  of  such  a  fact  as 
this  did  not  inspire  them  to  deeds  as  well  as  words.  Upon  making 
up  the  annual  accounts  of  the  sale  of  the  cotton  manufacture,  it  was 
clearly  established,  that  there  is  not  so  much  of  the  Irish  manu- 
facture sold  in  the  entire  year,  as  of  the  English  in  one  day !  ! 
Could  any  person  with  Irish  feelings  listen  to  this  statement,  and 
refuse  to  make  the  slight  sacrifice  of  purchasing  the  work  of  his 
countrymen  in  preference  to  English  manufacture,  which  he  might 
suppose  better  or  handsomer  ?  But,  in  point  oi  fact,  it  was  not  either 
handsomer  or  better.  The  manufacturer  of  all  kinds  of  clothing 
had  much  improved  under  all  its  discouraging  circumstances.  What 
perfection  may  it  not  arrive  at,  if  it  but  receive  the  countenance  of 
the  inhabitants  ?  It  was  only  yesterday  that  the  cloth  he  wore  had 
been  taken  by  an  English  merchant  for  the  manufacture  of  his  own 
country.  '  It  is  so  good,'  said  he,  '  it  must  be  English  ;*  but  Mr. 
O'Connell  had  replied,  that  he  was  proud  to  say,  '  it  must  be  good, 
because  it  is  Irish.' 

"  The  learned  gentleman  expressed  a  strong  wish  that  the  use  of 
the  Irish  corduroy  and  velveteen  might  be  promoted  amongst  the 
peasantry.  He  said,  that  when  England  was  at  peace  with  America, 
she  made  up  immense  parcels  of  these  goods  and  disposed  of  them 
there.  They  were  of  a  very  inferior  description — no  matter  how 
coarse — they  were  good  enough  for  the  native  negro  slaves  in  the 
Southern  States,  and  for  the  Irish  imported  slaves  in  the  Northern. 
But  when  this  fruitful  market  was  shut  up,  those  goods  were  sent  to 
Ireland,  as  a  substitute  for  the  manufacture  of  this  country,  which 
had  been  in  use  while  the  English  fabrics  went  to  America.  In 
Ireland,  they  found  a  ready  consumption,  and  soon  superseded  the 
home  manufacture,  though  of  an  infinitely  worse  and  more  unlasting 
quality.  The  Ii'ish  cottons  might,  at  the  first  price,  be  dearer,  but 
they  were  eventually  much  cheaper,  for  they  gave  tiviee  the  length 


464  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

of  service.  He  said  he  was  sure  he  might  calculate  upon  the  assist- 
ance of  the  patriotic  Press  of  Ireland  ;  for  the  aid  and  friendly 
disposition  of  the  Freeman's  Journal,  the  Dublin  Evening  Post, 
and  the  Evening  Herald,  he  would  venture  to  answer.  With  the 
support  of  the  independent  Press,  and  the  individual  exertions  of 
the  members  of  the  committee,  he  hoped  much  might  be  effectuated. 
"  The  learned  gentleman  now  moved  his  first  resolution,  which  is, 
that  each  member  of  the  board  sign  and  give  in  to  the  secretary  the 
following  declaration  : — 

'•  '  I  declare,  upon  my  honour,  that  I  will  not  speak  or  vote  in  the  Catholic 
board  in  any  other  dress  than  one  of  Irish  manufacture.' 

"Mr.  O'Grorman  thought  that  every  man  who  appeared  at  the 
board  should  make  a  similar  declaration. 

"  Doctor  Dromgoole  said,  that  five  persons  are  sent  from  each 
parish  to  the  board.  Let  those  five  make  a  declaration,  in  addition 
to  the  above,  that  they  will  not  suffer  the  use  of  any  manufacture 
except  Irish  in  their  families.  Let  them  also  make  individual  ap- 
plication to  their  neighbours  and  acquaintances,  Protestants,  Ca- 
tholics, and  Dissenters,  to  prohibit  any  article  not  of  home  fabric  in 
their  families,  and  then  we  may  expect  to  see  the  manufacturers 
happy  and  contented.  Individual  application  and  exertion  (said  the 
learned  Doctor)  will  do  much  more  service  than  any  general  appeals, 
which  are  usually  forgotten  as  soon  as  perused.  (This  suggestion 
met  great  and  deserved  applause.) 

"  Mr.  O'Gorman  followed,  after  which  the  resolution  was  put  and 
carried  unanimously. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  then  moved  his  next  resolution  on  this  subject, 
which  is — 

"  '  That  the  different  counties  be  recommended  to  take  this  subject  into  their 
consideration  at  their  ensuing  meetings.' 

"  Mr.  O'Gorman  begged  leave  to  second  it,  and  said  he  should 
move  upon  the  subject  in  the  county  of  Clare. 

"  Mr.  Roche  declared  a  similar  intention  respecting  the  county 
Westmeath. 

"  This  resolution  also  passed  unanimously. 

"  After  it  was  agreed  that  the  correspondence  of  the  board  should 
be  referred  to  the  committee  of  accounts,   Mr.  McDonnell  left  the 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,     M.P.  465 

cliair,  aud  the  names  of  Mr.  Bagot  and  Mr.  O'Gorman  were  vocife- 
rated from  all  parts  of  the  hall  at  nearly  the  same  moment. 

"  Mr.  O'Gorman  said  that  he  would  end  the  business  by  taking 
the  chair,  which  he  accordingly  did,  and  then  put  the  question, 
whether  he  should  remain  in  the  chair  or  not.  No  opposition  being 
offered,  it  was  decided  in  the  affirmative.  Mr.  Finn  declared  that 
he  had  called  Mr.  O'Gorman  before  Mr.  Bagot's  name  was 
mentioned. 

"  Mr.  Costigan  deprecated  very  sincerely  any  spirit  of  the  kind 
which  had  just  shown  itself.  It  must  do  incalculable  injury.  It  had 
afforded  him  sincere  pleasure  when  he  saw  one  of  the  most  respect- 
able gentlemen  of  the  board,  and  one  of  those  who  had  been  called 
seceders,  enter  the  hall ;  but,  really,  if  such  violent  ebullitions  of 
party  feeling  were  encouraged,  it  would  drive  away  every  moderate 
and  reasonable  man  from  their  meetings. 

"  Mr,  O'Connell  was  much  surprised  to  hear  of  seceders  and  se- 
cessions. If  some  gentlemen  chose  to  remain  away,  they  might  do  so 
without  being  missed.     The  people  could  do  without  them. 

"  Mr.  Bagot  was  about  to  speak,  when  Mr.  O'Gorman  rose  and 
said,  that  he  felt  himself  in  an  awkward  situation.  (Not  at  all,  not  at 
aU.)  The  business  for  which  he  had  been  called  to  the  chair,  was 
merely  to  return  thanks  to  the  former  worthy  chairman,  and  he 
really  did  not  know  whether  he  could  suffer  a  discussion  like  that 
which  was  commencing  to  proceed.  (Hear  Mr.  Bagot,  hear  Mr. 
Bagot.) 

"  Mr.  Bagot  hoped  he  should  be  permitted  to  say  a  few  words  in 
explanation,  rendered  necessary  by  the  mention  which  had  been 
made  of  his  name.  Great  as  was  the  respect  which  he  entertained 
for  the  high  distinction  of  chairman  of  the  Catholic  board,  and 
gratified  as  he  should  certainly  be,  by  being  thought  worthy  of  that 
situation,  he  had  no  wish  to  put  his  claims  in  opposition  to  those  of 
the  learned  gentleman  whom  he  was  then  addressing.  He  should 
beg  leave  to  decline  any  such  competition.  He  found  that  his  name 
had  been  coupled  with  a  term  that  had  lately  become  familiar.  He 
meant  the  term  seceder.  He  begged  leave  to  say,  that  he  never  had 
seceded  from  the  Catholic  cause,  or  from  the  Catholic  hoard, 
(Loud  applause.)  And  further,  he  solemnly  declared,  that  his  life 
and  every  thing  he  possessed  would  be  cheerfully  devoted  to  the 
success  of  that  cause.  (Loud  and  repeated  cheering.)  When  he 
made  this  declaration,  he  did  so,  not  in  mere  general  terms,  but  with 

2  II 


466  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

respect  to  the  specific  object  of  unlimited  emancipation.  (Repeated 
plaudits — Hear,  hear,  from  Mr.  O'Connell  and  Mr.  O'Gorman.) 
But  while  he  thus  expressed  his  determination  to  use  unceasing 
constitutional  efforts  for  freedom,  he  must  plead  guilty  in  some  part 
to  the  charge  of  secession,  if  absenting  himself  from  rashness,  intem- 
perance, and  folly,  was  meant  by  secession.  True  it  was,  that 
he  and  some  respectable  gentlemen  with  whom  he  had  occasion- 
ally the  honour  to  act,  had  seceded  from  proceedings  which  they 
never  could  approve.  Finding  that  they  were  unable  to  stem  the 
torrent,  tliey  considered  it  more  prudent  to  absent  themselves,  than 
to  render  folly  more  flagrant  by  a  show  of  opposition  to  it.  The 
expressions  he  made  use  of  were  strong,  but  he  could  not  forget  that 
he  had  heard  the  sacred  name  of  Grattan  profaned  (he  trusted  he 
should  be  permitted  to  use  the  term)  at  that  table. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  was  sorry  that  anything  should  have  drawn  forth 
such  observations.  The  gentleman  had  avowed  himself  a  seceder, 
and  he  (Mr.  O'Connell)  was  only  sorry  he  had  come  back.  "Who 
was  it  that  had  the  folly,  the  flagrant  folly,  to  charge  the  Catholic 
board  of  Ireland  with  flagrant  folly  ? 

"Mr.  Bagot,  the  gentleman  has  mistaken  me — I  did  not  charge 
the  board  with  flagrant  folly,  but  said  I  had  witnessed  proceedings 
here  which  I  could  not  consider  other  than  rash  and  foolish,  but  I 
never  intended  to  visit  the  conduct  of  individuals  upon  the  board 
generally. 

"Mr.  O'Connell  continued — He  said  the  gentleman  had  been 
pleased  to  make  a  personal  allusion  to  him.  It  was  true  that  he  had 
once  in  the  fulness  of  his  heart  made  use  of  an  expression  towards 
Mr.  Grattan,  which  he  had  afterwards  publicly  recanted  before  the 
gentlemen  had  taunted  him  with  it.  But  it  was  the  absurd  adulation 
which  Mr.  Grattan  had  received  that  had  ruined  him.  If  good 
sense  were  sometimes  spoken,  it  would  be  useful.  Had  he  known 
the  many  letters  he  (Mr.  O'Connell)  had  received,  and  the  observa- 
tions which  had  been  made  to  him  by  true  friends  of  Ireland,  in 
consequence  of  the  recantation  just  mentioned,  he  would  not  have 
received  the  Catholic  board  in  a  lodging,  when  he  might  have 
commanded  Leinster  House.  He  would  not  have  thrown  a  milk- 
and-water  phrase  of  'conciliation'  into  his  spiritless  and  aqueous 
answer  to  the  address.  He  would  not  have  answered  the  '  simple 
repeal'  of  the  Catholics,  by  talking  of  the  spirit  of  the  last  parlia- 
ment, that  spirit  with  which  had  originated  the  clauses,  and  arrange- 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  467 

merits  and  provisions.  But  it  was  easily  accounted  for,  although  the 
first  of  patriots,  Mr.  Grattan,  was  but  a  man ;  and  if  anything 
completely  led  him  astray,  it  was  that  absurd  folly  which  induced 
gentlemen  to  talk  of  profaning  his  name.  The  learned  gentleman 
said  it  was  true  there  were  some  Catholics  so  anxious  for  what  they 
termed  Emancipation,  that  they  would  be  content  to  buy  it  by 
delivering  up  themselves,  and  even  their  venerable  bishops,  bound 
hand  and  foot  to  the  secretary  at  the  Castle  ;  but  he  trusted  that,  as 
it  had  before  happened,  the  spirit  of  the  people  would  counteract  such 
views. 

"  Mr.  Bagot  protested,  in  reply,  that  he  would  not  yield  to  the 
learned  gentleman,  or  to  any  one,  in  unshrinking  devotion  to  the 
cause  of  Ireland,  His  life,  and  every  thing  that  was  dear  to  him,  he 
freely  embarked  in  that  cause,  and  would  willingly  sacrifice  them  to 
its  success  were  they  required. 

"  He  asserted  his  right  to  express  disapprobation  in  any  way  he 
chose,  and  hoped  there  would  be  no  repetition  of  the  occasions.  He 
defended  himself  against  the  charge  of  having  been  a  party  to  an 
attempt  to  insult  the  clergy.  He  had,  indeed,  been  one  of  those  who, 
on  a  late  occasion,  had  wished  to  echo  the  conciliation  which  had 
been  held  out,  &c.,  &c. 

"  In  conclusion,  Mr.  Bagot  disclaimed  all  personal  allusions  in 
anything  he  had  said." 

On  Monday,  the  26th  of  July,  the  case  of  the  King  v.  Magee 
was  again  called  on. 

Mr.  O'Connell  addressed  the  Court  at  its  sitting. 


"  TRIAL  OF  JOHN  MAGEE, 

"Proprietor  of  the  Dublin  Evening  Post,  for  a  libel  against  his 
Grace  the  Duke  of  Richmond. 

"King's  Bench,  July  26,  1813. 

*'  The  court  of  King's  Bench  was  yesterday  morning  crowded  at 
an  early  hour,  by  the  interest  excited  in  this  case,  which  had  been 
twice  postponed,  on  account  of  the  absence,  as  the  affidavits  of  the 
traverser  stated,  of  witnesses  material  to  his  defence.  The  Chief 
Justice  entered  the  court  soon  after  eleven  o'clock,  and  the  Clerk  of 


468  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

tlie  Crown  was  proceeding  to  call  over  the  panel,  when  Mr. 
O'Connell,  one  of  the  traverser's  counsel,  rose  and  spoke  as  follows  : — 

"  My  lord,  I  am  to  apply  to  your  loi'dship  to  postpone  this  trial  to 
the  first  nisi  prius  day  of  next  term,  in  consequence  of  the  absence 
of  two  witnesses  material  for  the  traverser's  defence;  and  I  can 
undertake  to  state,  with  confidence,  that  if  your  lordship  grant  this 
application,  those  w  itnesses  will  he  in  attendance  at  that  time  ;  my 
application  is  grounded  on  three  afi&davits,  and  is  opposed  by  one  on 
the  part  of  the  Crown,  by  which  I  find  there  is  the  same  anxiety  to 
try  Magee  in  the  absence  of  his  witnesses,  as  prevailed  on  the  former 
occasions  ;  in  the  aflRdavits  of  Mr.  Magee,  one  of  the  28th  of  May, 
and  the  other  of  the  5th  of  July,  it  was  stated  that  Mr.  "W.  Pole,  Sir 
C.  Saxton,  and  Mr.  Fitzgerald  were  important  witnesses  ;  the  latter 
gentleman  is  in  attendance,  but  the  two  former  not ;  and  if  the  Court 
before  agreed  to  postpone,  on  account  of  their  absence,  the  same 
cause  now  operates,  and  we  come  now  with  stronger  documents  than 
before ;  for  we  have  the  affidavit  of  service  of  two  subpoenas  ad 
testificandum,  and  the  affidavit  of  the  English  agent  will  be  produced 
to  prove  he  transmitted  £30  British,  as  viaticums  for  Mr.  Pole  and 
Sir  Charles  Saxton.  And  what  says  the  affidavit  of  the  Crown 
Solicitor  ?  Why  that  a  letter  was  received  from  C  Saxton,  stating 
that  he  had  not  received  his  viaticum.  How  frivolous  is  it  to 
talk  of  £15  preventing  a  high-minded  gentleman  doing  justice 
between  party  and  party  ;  it  is  sworn  by  the  process-server  that  he 
believes  it  was  Sent  to  the  lodging-house  in  which  Sir  C.  Saxton 
lived,  and  where  he  learned  that  Sir  Charles  had  set  off  for  Ireland ; 
the  viaticum  would  have  been  personally  paid  if  there  had  been 
personal  attendance.  Mr.  Magee  further  swears  that  he  will  apply 
to  the  Court  of  King's  Bench  in  England,  for  attachments  for  not 
obejang  your  lordship's  process. 

"  Chief  Justice. — That  attachment  issues  on  certificate  from  this 
Court  that  a  viaticum  was  tendered. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell. — The  only  certificate,  I  believe,  my  lord, 
required,  is  a  certificate  of  non-attendance.  The  process-server  was 
informed  that  Sir  Charles  had  set  out  for  Ireland,  and  if  his  servant 
told  a  falsehood,  why  should  Mr.  Magee  suffer  ?  Mr.  Kemmis 
makes  affidavit  of  a  letter  from  Sir  Charles,  and  only  presents  us 
with  a  fragment  of  it ;  is  it  not  strange  he  did  not  write  to  Mr. 
Magee's  ageht  instead  of  the  agent  for  the  prosecution  ?  The  letter 
is  written   not  to  the  person  who  wanted  his  evidence,  but  to  the 


DANIEL    O  CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  469 

person  that  did  not.  Mr.  Fitzgerald  did  not  send  his  excuse,  but 
wrote  to  the  agent  of  the  traverser.  Were  we  to  hunt  all  over 
England  for  Sir  Charles  to  give  him  his  viaticum  personally  ?  "We 
have  the  letter  of  the  English  agent  who  is  now  in  court,  whose 
affidavit  will  be  sworn  before  this  trial  shall  have  proceeded,  and  in 
which  he  states  that  he  believes  the  viaticum  was  received.  Con- 
sider, my  lord,  the  great  severity  it  would  be  try  a  man  in  Ireland, 
while  his  witness  is  in  England.  Mr.  "W.  Pole,  it  is  true,  has  no 
residence  in  Ireland,  although  here  presents  an  Irish  county,  and  I 
am  sure  (said  Mr.  O'Coiinell)  he  would  not  peddle  about  fifteen 
pounds  ;  if  there  had  been  any  negligence  upon  the  part  of  the 
traverser,  his  application  would  come  with  a  bad  grace,  but  he  has 
done  every  thing  in  his  power  to  induce  the  attendance  of  his 
witnesses  ;  two  fresh  subpoenas  have  been  served ;  and  I  should  hope 
the  case  of  the  Chevalier  D'Eon,  reported  in  Burrowes,  will  not  be 
here  debated ;  in  that  case  the  witnesses  were  in  France,  and  no 
chance  of  their  coming  over ;  but  the  obstacle  to  the  attendance  of 
our  witnesses  is  now  done  away ;  they  were,  at  the  time  of  former 
applications,  attending  their  duty  in  parliament ;  but  that  cause,  which 
I  allow  a  legal  one,  is  now  done  away  ;  up  to  Thursday  last,  their 
absence  is  accounted  for,  and  we  can  now  proceed  to  enforce  their 
attendance,  so  that  there  is  little  doubt  of  their  being  present  on  the 
day  this  trial  will  stand  for,  if  your  lordship  grant  this  application. 
Being  now  in  possession  of  Sir  Charles  Saxton's  last  excuse,  the  non- 
receipt  of  the  viaticum,  that  shall  be  obviated,  and  that  it  has  not 
been  caused  by  the  default  of  Mr.  Magee,  Mr.  Menzie's  affidavit  will 
clearly  evince.  And  as  former  postponements  took  place  on  weaker 
grounds,  I  should  hope  this  application  will  be  allowed.  Mr.  Kemmis 
cannot  say  he  believes  Mr.  Magee  intends  to  escape  from  justice ; 
he  sets  out  a  letter  of  Sir  C.  Saxton,  and  does  not  swear  that  he 
believes  it ;  by  the  postponement,  a  failure  of  justice  cannot  ensue, 
but  great  injustice  may  be  done  if  traverser  be  obliged  to  go  to 
trial,  in  the  absence  of  his  witnesses. 

"  Chief  Justice — Do  you  consent,  Mr.  Attorney-General  ? 

"  Attorney-General. — By  no  means,  my  lord;  two  of  the  persons 
formerly  absent  are  now  present,  and  further  postponement  would  be 
but  a  mockery  of  justice. 

"  Mr.  Wallace. — There  is  nothing  to  justify  the  expressions  of  a 
mockery  of  justice ;  this  is  not  an  application  to  postpone  the 
punishment,  but  one  to  the  discretion  of  the  Court  to  postpone  the 


470  MEMOIR     AND    SPEECHES    OF 

trial.  Mr.  Magee  may  be  guilty  of  the  libel,  but  until  proved  so,  he  is 
to  be  considered  innocent ;  the  Crown  cannot  suffer  by  the  delay,  for 
judgment  cannot  be  had  till  next  term. 

"  Chief  Justice. — Let  me  see  the  affidavits. 

"  Mr.  Wallace I  am   glad   your   lordship  has  looked  into  the 

affidavits ;  they  contain  the  usual  ground  for  postponing  the  trial, 
that  justice  cannot  be  done  if  the  trial  proceeded  in  the  absence  of 
traverser's  witnesses ;  and  am  I  not  at  liberty  to  assume  that  Sir 
C.  Saxton  is  a  material  witness,  when  it  has  not  been  contravened 
by  the  affidavit  on  the  other  side  ?  It  would  be  miserable  special 
pleading  to  say,  that  because  the  money  was  not  actually  put  into  Sir 
C.  Saxton's  pocket,  although  he  was  on  his  way  to  Ireland,  that, 
therefore,  he  is  justified  in  acting  as  if  no  viaticum  at  all  had  been 
sent  to  him.  I  am  sorry  he  conceived  a  viaticum  at  all  necessary. 
Two  of  the  witnesses,  the  Attorney-General  states,  have  arrived,  but 
we  made  no  compromise  to  go  to  trial  in  the  absence  of  the 
others.  I  shall  not  trouble  your  lordship  at  greater  length;  but 
the  cardinal  fact  in  our  cause  is,  we  have  the  best  grounded  hope 
that  he  will  attend  on  the  day  we  have  applied  to  fix  the  trial  for. 

*'  Chief  Justice. — This  case  comes  before  me  like  any  other  cause 
at  nisi  prius,  and  I  will  act  in  it  as  I  would  on  circuit.  The  Judge 
cannot  say  I  will  not  try  it ;  let  the  party  prosecuting  proceed  at  his 
peril ;  because  two  postponements  have  taken  place  before  the  Court, 
is  it  to  be  argued,  that,  therefore,  a  third  shall  ?  There  is  no  fact 
either  stated  in  the  affidavit  or  by  counsel,  by  which  the  Court  can 
judge  of  the  materiality  of  the  absent  witness  ;  one  of  them  says  he 
would  have  attended  if  he  had  received  a  proper  viaticum  ;  that 
which  is  spoken  of  would  not  be  sufficient  to  bring  persons  of  their 
rank  half  way.  I  cannot  consent  to  postpone  the  trial,  but  let  the 
prosecutor  proceed  at  his  own  risk. 

"  Mr.  Townsend  cited  the  case  of  the  King  against  Finney,  which 
afterwards  went  to  the  twelve  judges,  and  in  that  case  there  was  no 
postponement. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell. — Mr.  Attorney- General  will  proceed,  if  he  please ; 
but  it  would  be  a  mockery  of  justice  to  consent  to  go  on  in  the 
absence  of  our  witnesses. 

"  Attorney-General My  lord,  it  is  most  important  that  jurors 

should  attend  when  summoned. 

"  Chief  Justice. — They  have  been  called  on  £50  fines.  Here  a 
long  delay  took  place  for  want  of  jurors. 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,  M.P.  471 

"  Mr.  O'Coiinell I  am  desired  by  Mr.  Magee,  to  state,  that  if  the 

postponement  shall  be  allowed,  proper  viaticums  shall  be  sent. 

"  Attorney-General. — I  cannot  consent,  as  I  feel  confident  delay  is 
the  only  object  in  view. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell We  differ  in  opinion  with  Mr.  Magee ;  we  do 

not  wish  to  appear  if  the  trial  proceed,  but  we  yield  to  his  wish  that 
we  should.     A  further  delay  took  place. 

"Mr.  Finlay,  in  a  very  nervous  manner,  then  said — My  lord,  I 
think  it  extremely  unreasonable,  since  they  won't  wait  for  our  wit- 
nesses, that  we  should  wait  for  their  jury.     (A  general  laugh.) 

"Mr.  Attorney-General My  lord,  there  are  but  eleven  jurors  in 

attendance,  we,  therefore,  pray  a  tales  ;  we  would,  however,  rather 
have  the  panel,  if  your  lordship  will  wait  a  short  time. 

Mr.  O'Connell. — My  lord,  I  am  to  pray  to  quash  the  panel.  This 
is  a  trial  by  nisi  prius,  and  yet  the  panel  is  different  from  the  nisi 
prius  one  ;  there  are  but  twenty-four  names,  instead  of  thirty-six, 
and  the  29th  of  Geo.  II.,  cap.  6,  includes  the  case  of  the  King  against 
Magee,  as  well  as  other  trials  at  nisi  prius  ;  tlie  third  section  enacts, 
that  any  sheriti"  or  other  officer,  shall  annex  the  Christian  names,  &c., 
of  the  persons  returned,  who  shall  be  in  number  thirty-six,  and  that 
they  shall  try  all  the  cases  at  nisi  prius ;  the  sheriff  has  here 
returned  the  venire,  and  has  not  returned  thirty-six  names  ;  twenty- 
four  only  being  returned  ;  the  words  of  the  statute  are  express  ;  the 
only  doubt  is,  whether  criminal  cases  ai'e  included ;  it  may  be  said 
that  party  and  party  include  the  King ;  the  third  section  is  a  positive 
enactment ;  the  first  section  has  these  words  '■per  meditatem  lingua,^ 
which  is  only  applicable  to  criminal  cases,  as  there  is  no  such  thing 
in  civil  cases. 

"  Chief  Justice. — This  appears,  reading  the  statute,  to  apply  to  the 
assizes. 

Mr.  O'Connell — And  nisi  prius  also. 

"  Chief  Justice. — I  don't  think  it  applies  to  the  city  of  Dublin. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell. — Then  your  lordship  will  make  a  note  of  our 
motion  to  quash  the  panel.  Now,  my  lord,  we  object  to  the  array  ; 
there  has  been  a  misdirection  of  the  venire  ;  before  the  statute,  the 
proceedings  were  by  distringas  alias,  and  plaries  distringas ;  the 
venire  issued  in  this  case  has  been  returned,  and  remains  amongst 
the  records  of  the  court.  There  are,  at  present,  two  venires.  The 
Attorney-General  can  appoint  triers  to  try  the  fact. 

"  Attorney-General — They  allege  there  are  errors  on  the  record. 


472  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

Your  loi'dship  is  not  sitting  here  to  try  the  plea  roll,  but  the  issue 
knit  between  the  parties. 

"  If  there  be  error  on  the  record,  a  writ  of  error  will  lie,  or  a 
motion  may  be  made  to  arrest  the  j  udgment. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell — The  nisi  prius  roll  will  exhibit  the  ground  of 
our  objection. 

Mr.  Wallace. — "We  could  have  no  opportunity  to  challenge  the 
array  if  we  did  not  know  of  the  second  panel. 

"  Chief  Justice — The  record  is  now  before  me  and  I  do  not  see  the 
second  venire. 

"Mr.  Townsend — All  objections  to  the  array  are  against  the 
officer  himself,  but  this  is  for  the  Court  above,  and  not  to  be  considered 
as  nisi  prius. 

"Attorney-General. — If  there  be  any  error  on  the  record,  this  is 
not  the  place  to  amend  it. 

.  "  Mr.  Wallace. — We  contend  for  it ;  we  ai-e  not  to  be  tried  by  the 
second  jury. 

"  The  Clerk  of  the  Crown  then  read  from  the  record,  the  objections 
put  in  by  the  traverser's  counsel ;  they  were  put  in  as  pleas,  and  were 
substantially  ;  in  the  first  place,  that  the  panel  was  returned  by  the 
sheriffs,  under  the  denominations  (nominations)  of  the  Attorney- 
General  ;  that  the  panel  did  not  contain  truth  ;  and  that  a  distringe 
did  not  issue  on  the  first  venire.  The  Attorney-General  then,  ore 
tenus,  joined  issue  on  the  first  and  second  plea,  and  demurred  to  the 
third.    Triers  were  then  appointed— Messrs.  Heyland  and  Hamilton. 

"  William  Goff,  Esq.,  examined  by  Mr.  O'Connell. 

"  Do  you  know  Joseph  Goff? 

"  I  do. 

"Is  he  not  one  of  the  persons  returned  on  this  panel  ? 

"  I  believe  so. 
■  "  Mr.  O'Connell. — My  lord,  we  are  going  to  prove  that  this  person, 
not  having  any  other  favour  to  ask  of  the  government,  expressed  a 
wish  to  be  always  employed  as  a  juror  in  cases  where  the  Crown  was 
a  party  ;  such  expressions  would  warrant  a  conclusion  that  his  name 
now  appeared  on  the  panel  in  consequence,  of  his  own  wishes,  and 
in  violation,  therefore,  of  the  impartiality  necessary  in  the  formation 
of  juries. 

"  The  reason  why  we  did  not  pi'oduce  the  person  himself  is  upon 


DANIEL    O  CONNELL,    ESQ.,  M.P.  473 

the  generul  principle,  that  no  man  is  bound  to  criminate  himself.  If 
crown  influence  be  proved,  it  will  affect  the  Attorney-General,  as 
identified  with  the  officers  of  the  crow  n." 

This  challenge  was,  after  some  discussion,  disallowed,  as  the 
Court  would  not  admit  hearsay  evidence  on  the  point. 
The  following  were  the  jury,  as  finally  sworn  : — 

Leland  Crosthwaite,  Martin  Keene, 

Thomas  Andrews,  Benjamin  Darley, 

Bladen  Swiney,  "William  Watson, 

Richard  Palmer,  William  Walsh, 

Thomas  Rochfort,  Richard  Cooke, 

Alexander  Montgomery,  Edward  Clibborne. 

Mr.  Kemmis  then  opened  the  indictment,  and  the  Attorney- 
General  followed. 

The  nature  of  his  speech  will  be  readily  gathered  from  Mr. 
O'Connell's  reply,  which  has  been  generally  considered  one  of 
his  greatest  bar  efforts,  and  which  we  now  proceed  to  give. 

It  was  on  Tuesday,  27th  July,  the  second  day  of  the  pro- 
ceedings, that  he  was  called  upon  to  speak.  We  quote  the 
ample  report  of  the  Evening  Post. 

"  At  eleven  o'clock,  the  Chief  Justice  took  his  seat  in  the  court, 
which  was  crowded  from  an  early  hour,  public  expectation  being 
much  excited  and  interested,  with  respect  to  the  proceedings  and 
issue  of  the  day. 

"  Mr.  O'Connell  rose  and  spoke  as  follows  :— 

"  I  consented  to  the  adjournment  yesterday,  gentlemen  of  the 
jury,  from  that  impulse  of  nature  which  compels  us  to  postpone 
pain ;  it  is,  indeed,  painful  to  me  to  address  you ;  it  is  a  cheerless,  a 
hopeless  task  to  address  you — a  task  which  would  require  all  the 
animation  and  interest  to  be  derived  from  the  working  of  a  mind 
fully  fraught  with  the  resentment  and  disgust  created  in  mine 
yesterday,  by  that  farrago  of  helpless  absurdity  with  which  Mr. 
Attorney-General  regaled  you. 

''  But  I  am  now  not  sorry  for  the  delay.  Whatever  I  may  have 
lost  in  vivacity,  I  trust  I  shall  compensate  for  in  discretion.  That 
which  yesterday  excited  my  anger,  now  appears  to  me  to  be  an  ob- 
ject of  pity  ;  and  that  which  then  I'oused  my  indignation,  now  only 


474  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

moves  to  contempt.  I  can  now  address  you  with  feelings  softened, 
and,  I  trust,  subdued  ;  and  I  do,  from  my  soul,  declare,  that  I  now 
cherish  no  other  sensations  than  those  which  enable  me  to  bestow 
on  the  Attorney- General  and  on  his  discourse,  pure  and  unmixed 
compassion. 

"  It  was  a  discourse  in  which  you  could  not  discover  either  order, 
or  method,  or  eloquence  ;  it  contained  very  little  logic,  and  no 
poetry  at  all ;  violent  and  virulent,  it  was  a  confused  and  disjointed 
tissue  of  bigotry,  amalgamated  with  congenial  vulgarity.  He  accused 
my  client  of  using  Billingsgate,  and  he  accused  him  of  it  in  language 
suited  exclusively  for  that  meridian.  He  descended  even  to  the 
calling  of  names :  he  called  this  young  gentleman  a  '  malefactor,'  a 
'  Jacobin,'  and  a   *  ruffian,'  gentlemen  of  the  jury ;  he  called  him 

*  abominable,'  and  '  seditious,'  and  '  revolutionary,'  and  '  infamous,' 
and   a   '  ruffian'    again,    gentlemen  of  the  jury  ;  he   called   him  a 

*  brothel  keeper,'  a  '  pander,'  '  a  kind  of  bawd  in  breeches,'  and  a 

*  ruffian'  a  third  time,  gentlemen  of  the  jury. 

"I  cannot  repress  my  astonishment,  how  Mr.  Attorney-General 
could  have  preserved  this  dialect  in  its  native  purity  ;  he  has  been 
now  for  nearly  thirty  years  in  the  class  of  polished  society  ;  he  has, 
for  some  years,  mixed  amongst  the  highest  orders  in  the  state  ;  he 
has  had  the  honour  to  belong  for  thirty  years  to  the  first  profession 
in  the  world — to  the  only  profession,  with  the  single  exception, 
perhaps,  of  the  military,  to  which  a  high-minded  gentleman  could 
condescend  to  belong — the  Irish  bar.  To  that  bar,  at  which  he  has 
seen  and  heard  a  Burgh  and  a  Duquery  ;  at  which  he  must  have 
listened  to  a  Burston,  a  Ponsonby,  and  a  Curran  ;  to  a  bai',  which 
still  contains  a  Plunket,  a  Ball,  and,  despite  of  politics,  I  will  add,  a 
Bushe.  With  this  galaxy  of  glory,  flinging  their  light  around  him, 
how  can  he  alone  have  remained  in  darkness?  How  has  it  hap- 
pened, that  the  twilight  murkiness  of  his  soul,  has  not  been  illu- 
mined with  a  single  ray  shot  from  their  lustre  ?  Devoid  of  taste  and  of 
genius,  how  can  he  have  had  memory  enough  to  preserve  this  original 
vulgarity  ?  He  is,  indeed,  an  object  of  compassion,  and,  from  my 
inmost  soul,  I  bestow  on  him  my  forgiveness,  and  my  bounteous 
pity. 

"  But  not  for  him  alone  should  compassion  be  felt.  Recollect,  that 
upon  his  advice — that  with  him,  as  the  prime  mover  and  instigator 
of  those  rash,  and  silly,  and  irritating  measures,  of  the  last  five 
years,  which  have  afflicted  and  distracted  this  long-suffering  countiy 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  475 

have  originated — with  him  they  have  all  originated.  Is  there  not 
then  compassion  due  to  the  millions,  vrhose  destinies  are  made  to 
depend  upon  his  counsel  ?  Is  there  no  pity  to  those  who,  like  me, 
must  know  that  the  liberties  of  the  tenderest  pledges  of  their  affec- 
tions, and  of  that  which  is  dearer  still,  of  their  country,  depend  on 
this  man's  advice  ? 

"  Yet,  let  not  pity  for  us  be  unmixed ;  he  has  afforded  the  con- 
solation of  hope  ;  his  harangue  has  been  heard ;  it  wiU  be  reported — 
I  trust,  faithfully  reported ;  and  if  it  be  but  read  in  England,  we 
may  venture  to  hope  that  there  may  remain  just  so  much  good  sense 
in  England  as  to  induce  the  conviction  of  the  folly  and  the  danger 
of  conducting  the  government  of  a  brave  and  long-enduring  people 
by  the  counsels  of  so  tasteless  and  talentless  an  adviser. 

*'  See  what  an  imitative  animal  man  is  !  The  sound  of  ruffian — 
ruffian — ruffian,  had  scarcely  died  on  the  Attorney-General's  lips, 
when  you  find  the  word  honoured,  with  all  the  permanency  of  print, 
in  one  of  his  pensioned  and  well-paid,  but  ill-read  newspapers.  Here 
is  the  first  line  in  the  Dublin  Journal  of  this  day : — '  The  ruffian 
who  writes  for  the  Freeman's  Journal.'  Here  is  an  apt  scholar — he 
profits  well  of  the  Attorney- Geneial's  tuition.  The  pupil  is  worthy 
of  the  master — the  master  is  just  suited  to  the  pupil. 

"  I  now  dismiss  the  style  and  measure  of  the  Attorney-General's 
discourse,  and  I  require  your  attention  to  its  matter.  That  matter  I 
must  divide,  although  with  him  there  was  no  division,  into  two 
unequal  portions.  The  first,  as  it  was  by  far  the  greater  portion  of 
his  discourse,  shall  be  that  which  was  altogether  inapplicable  to  the 
purposes  of  this  prosecution.  The  second,  and  infinitely  the  smaller 
portion  of  his  speech,  is  that  which  related  to  the  subject  matter  of 
the  indictment  which  you  are  to  try.  He  has  touched  upon,  and 
disfigured  a  great  variety  of  toj)ics.  I  shall  follow  him  at  my  good 
leisure  through  them.  He  has  invited  me  to  a  wide  field  of  discus- 
sion.    I  accept  his  challenge  with  alacrity  and  with  pleasure. 

"  This  extraneous  part  of  his  discourse,  which  I  mean  first  to 
discuss,  was  distinguished  by  two  leading  features.  The  first  con- 
sisted of  a  dull  and  reproving  sermon,  with  which  he  treated  my 
colleagues  and  myself,  for  the  manner  in  which  we  thought  fit  to 
conduct  this  defence.  He  talked  of  the  melancholy  exhibition  of 
four  hours  wasted,  as  he  said,  in  frivolous  debate,  and  he  obscurely 
hinted  at  something  like  incorrectness  of  professional  conduct.  He 
has  not  ventured  to  speak  out,  but  I  will.      I  shall  say  nothing  for 


476  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

myself;  but,  for  my  colleagues — my  inferiors  in  professional  standing, 
but  infinitely  my  superiors  in  every  talent  and  in  eveiy  acquirement 
— ^my  colleagues,  whom  I  boast  as  my  friends,  not  in  the  routine  lan- 
guage of  the  bar,  but  in  the  sincerity  of  my  esteem  and  affection  ; 
for  my  learned  and  upright  colleagues,  I  treat  the  unfounded  insi- 
nuation with  the  most  contemptuous  scorn  ! 

"All  I  shall  expose  is  the  utter  inattention  to  the  fact,  which, 
in  small  things  as  in  great,  seems  to  mark  the  Attorney-General's 
career.  He  talks  of  four  hours.  Why,  it  was  past  one  before  the 
last  of  you  were  digged  together  by  the  Sheriff,  and  the  Attorney- 
General  rose  to  address  you  before  three.  How  he  could  contrive  to 
squeeze  four  hours  into  that  interval,  it  is  for  him  to  explain ;  nor 
should  I  notice  it,  but  that  it  is  the  particular  prerogative  of  dulness 
to  be  accurate  in  the  detail  of  minor  facts,  so  that  the  Attorney- 
General  is  without  an  excuse,  when  he  departs  from  them,  and  when 
for  four  hours,  you  have  had  not  quite  two.  Take  this  also  with 
you,  that  we  assert  our  uncontrollable  right  to  employ  them  as  we 
have  done ;  and  as  to  his  advice,  we  neither  respect,  nor  will  we 
receive  it ;  but  we  can  afford  cheerfully  to  pardon  the  vain  presump- 
tion that  made  him  offer  us  counsel. 

"  For  the  rest,  he  may  be  assured  that  we  will  never  imitate  his 
example.  We  will  never  volunteer  to  mingle  our  politics,  whatever 
they  may  be,  with  our  forensic  duties.  I  made  this  the  rigid  rule  of 
my  professional  conduct ;  and  if  I  shall  appear  to  depart  from  this 
rule  now,  I  bid  you  recollect  that  I  am  compelled  to  follow  the 
Attoi-ney-General  into  grounds  which,  if  he  had  been  wise,  he  would 
have  avoided. 

"  Yes  ;  I  am  compelled  to  follow  him  into  the  discussion  of  his 
conduct  towards  the  Catholics.  He  has  poured  out  the  full  vial  of 
his  own  praise  on  that  conduct — -praise  in  which,  I  can  safely  assure 
him,  he  has  not  a  single  unpaid  rival.  It  is  a  topic  upon  which  no 
unbribed  man,  except  himself,  dwells.  I  admit  the  disinterestedness 
with  which  he  praises  himself,  and  I  do  not  envy  him  his  delight,  but 
he  ought  to  know,  if  he  sees  or  hears  a  word  of  that  kind  from  any 
other  man,  that  that  man  receives  or  expects  compensation  for  his 
task,  and  really  deserves  money  for  his  labour  and  invention. 

"  My  lord,  upon  the  Catholic  subject,  I  commence  with  one  asser- 
tion of  the  Attorney- General,  which  I  trust  I  misunderstood.  He 
talked,  as  I  collected  him,  of  the  Catholics  having  imbibed  principles 
of  a  seditious,  treasonable,  and  revolutionary  nature  !     He  seemed  to 


DANIEL    o'CONNELL,   E8Q.,   M.l'.  477 

me,  most  distinctly,  to  charge  us  with  treason !  There  is  no  relying 
on  his  words  for  his  meaning — I  know  there  is  not.  On  a  former 
occasion,  I  took  down  a  repetition  of  this  charge  full  seventeen  times 
on  my  brief,  and  yet,  afterwards,  it  turned  out  that  he  never  intended 
to  make  any  such  charge ;  that  he  forgot  he  had  ever  used  those 
words,  and  he  disclaimed  the  idea  they  naturally  convey.  It  is  clear, 
therefore,  that  upon  this  subject  he  knows  not  what  he  says  ;  and 
that  these  phrases  are  the  mere  flowers  of  his  rhetoric,  but  quite 
innocent  of  any  meaning  ! 

<'  Upon  this  account  I  pass  him  by,  I  go  beyond  him,  and  I  con- 
tent myself  with  proclaiming  those  charges,  whosoever  may  make 
them,  to  be  false  and  base  calumnies  !  It  is  impossible  to  refute  such 
charges  in  the  language  of  dignity  or  temper.  But  if  any  man  dares 
to  charge  the  Catholic  body,  or  the  Catholic  board,  or  any  individuals 
of  that  board  with  sedition  or  treason,  I  do  here,  I  shall  always  in  this 
court,  in  the  city,  in  the  field,  brand  him  as  an  infamous  and  profligate 
liar  ! 

"  Pardon  the  phrase,  but  there  is  no  other  suitable  to  the  occasion. 
But  he  is  a  profligate  liar  who  so  asserts,  because  he  must  know  that 
the  whole  tenor  of  our  conduct  confutes  the  assertion.  What  is  it  we 
seek  ?  ........ 

"  Chief  Justice What,  Mr.  O'Connell,  can  this  have  to  do  with 

the  question  which  the  jury  are  to  try  ? 

"Mr.  O'Connell. —  You  heard  the  Attorney -General  traduce  and 
calumniate  us — you  heard  him  tvith  patience  and  with  temper — 
listen  now  to  our  vindication  ! 

"  I  ask,  what  is  it  we  seek  ?  What  is  it  we  incessantly  and,  if  you 
please,  clamorously  petition  for  ?  Why,  to  be  allowed  to  partake  of 
the  advantages  of  the  constitution.  We  are  earnestly  anxious  to 
share  the  benefits  of  the  constitution.  We  look  to  the  participation 
in  the  constitution  as  our  greatest  political  blessing.  If  we  desired  to 
destroy  it,  would  we  seek  to  share  it  ?  If  we  wished  to  overturn  it, 
would  we  exert  ourselves  through  calumny,  and  in  peril,  to  obtain  a 
portion  of  its  blessings  ?  Strange,  inconsistent  voice  of  calumny ! 
You  charge  us  with  intemperance  in  our  exertions  for  a  participation 
in  the  constitution,  and  you  charge  us  at  the  same  time,  almost  in  the 
same  sentence,  with  a  design  to  overturn  that  constitution.  The 
dupes  of  your  hypocrisy  may  believe  you ;  but  base  calumniators,  you 
do  not,  you  cannot  believe  yourselves ! 

"  The  Attorney- General — '  this  wisest  and  best  of  men'   as  his 


478  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

colleague,  the  Solicitor-General,  called  him  in  his  presence — the 
Attorney-General  next  boasted  of  his  triumph  over  pope  and  popery 
— '  I  put  down  the  Catholic  committee ;  I  will  put  down,  at  my  good 
time,  the  Catholic  Board.'  This  boast  is  partly  historical,  partly 
prophetical.  He  was  wrong  in  his  history — he  is  quite  mistaken  in 
his  prophecy.  He  did  not  put  down  the  Catholic  Committee — we 
gave  up  that  name  the  moment  that  it  was  confessedly  avowed,  that 
this  sapient  Attorney-General's  polemica-legal  controversy  dwindled 
into  a  mere  dispute  about  words.  He  told  us  that  in  the  English 
language  '  pretence '  means  '  purpose  ;'  had  it  been  French  and  not 
English,  we  might  have  been  inclined  to  respect  his  judgment,  but  in 
point  of  English  we  venture  to  differ  with  him  ;  we  told  him  '  pur- 
pose,' good  Mr.  Attorney- General,  is  just  the  reverse  of  'pretence.' 
The  quarrel  grew  warm  and  animated  ;  we  appealed  to  common 
sense,  to  the  grammar,  and  to  the  dictionary  ;  common  sense,  gram- 
mar, and  the  dictionary  decided  in  our  favour.  He  brought  his 
appeal  to  this  court,  your  lordship,  and  your  brethren  unanimously 
decided  that,  in  point  of  law — mark,  mark,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  the 
sublime  wisdom  of  law — the  court  decided  that,  in  point  of  law, 
'■pretence^  does  mean  ^purpose  !' 

"  Fully  contented  with  this  very  reasonable  and  more  satisfactory 
decision,  there  still  remained  a  matter  of  fact  between  us :  the 
Attorney- General  charged  us  with  being  representatives  ;  we  denied 
all  representation.  He  had  two  witnesses  to  prove  the  fact  for  him  ; 
they  swore  to  it  one  way  at  one  trial,  and  directly  the  other  way  at 
the  next.  An  honourable,  intelligent,  and  enlightened  jury  dis- 
believed those  witnesses  at  the  first  trial — matters  were  better 
managed  at  the  second-trial — the  jury  were  better  arranged.  I  speak 
delicately,  gentlemen;  the  jury  were  better  arranged,  as  the  witnesses 
were  better  informed ;  and,  accordingly,  there  was  one  verdict  for  us 
on  the  representative  question,  and  one  verdict  against  us. 

"  You  know  the  jury  that  found  for  us  ;  you  know  that  it  was  Sir 
Charles  Saxton's  Castle-list  jury  that  found  against  us.  Well,  the 
consequence  was,  that,  thus  encouraged,  Mr.  Attorney-General  pro- 
ceeded to  force.  We  abhorred  tumult,  and  were  weary  of  litigation  ; 
we  new-modelled  the  agents  and  managers  of  the  Catholic  petitions ;  we 
formed  an  assembly,  respecting  which  there  could  not  be  a  shadow  of 
pretext  for  calling  it  a  representative  body.  We  disclaimed  representa- 
tion ;  and  we  rendered  it  impossible,  even  for  the  virulence  of  the  most 
malignant  law-officer  living,  to  employ  the  Convention  Act  against  us 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,   M.P.  479 

— that,  even  upon  the  Attorney-General's  own  construction,  requires 
representation  as  an  ingredient  in  the  offence  it  prohibits.  He 
cannot  possibly  call  us  representatives  ;  we  are  the  individual  servants 
of  the  public,  whose  business  we  do  gratuitously  but  zealously.  Our 
cause  has  advanced  even  from  his  persecution — and  this  he  calls 
putting  down  the  Catholic  Committee ! 

"  Next,  he  glorifies  himself  in  his  prospect  of  putting  down  the 
Catholic  Board.  For  the  present,  he,  indeed,  tells  you,  that,  much  as 
he  hates  the  papists,  it  is  unnecessary  for  him  to  crush  our  board, 
because  we  injure  our  own  cause  so  much.  He  says  that  we  are  very 
criminal,  but  we  are  so  foolish  that  our  folly  serves  as  a  compensa- 
tion for  our  wickedness.  We  are  very  wicked  and  very  mischievous, 
but  then  we  are  such  foolish,  little,  criminals,  that  we  deserve  his 
indulgence.  Thus  he  tolerates  offences,  because  of  their  being  com- 
mitted sillily ;  and,  indeed,  we  give  him  so  much  pleasure  and 
gratification  by  the  injury  we  do  our  own  cause,  that  he  is  spared  the 
superfluous  labour  of  impeding  our  petition  by  his  prosecutions,  fines, 
or  imprisonments. 

"  He  expresses  the  very  idea  of  the  Roman  Domitian,  of  whom 
some  of  you  possibly  may  have  read ;  he  amused  his  days  in  torturing 
men — his  evenings  he  relaxed  in  the  humble  cruelty  of  impaling  flies. 
A  courtier  caught  a  fly  for  his  imperial  amusement — '  fool,'  said  the 
emperor,  '  fool,  to  give  thyself  the  trouble  of  torturing  an  animal  that 
was  about  to  burn  itself  to  death  in  the  candle  !'  Such  is  the  spirit 
of  the  Attorney- General's  commentary  on  our  board.  Oh,  rare 
Attorney- General ! — Oh,  best  and  wisest  of  men  ! ! ! 

"  But,  to  be  serious.  Let  me  pledge  myself  to  you  that  he  imposes 
on  you,  when  he  threatens  to  crush  the  Catholic  Board.  Illegal 
violence  may  do  it — force  may  effectuate  it ;  but  your  hopes  and  his 
will  be  defeated,  if  he  attempts  it  by  any  course  of  law.  I  am,  if  not 
a  lawyer,  at  least,  a  barrister.  On  this  subject  I  ought  to  know 
•something,  and  I  do  not  hesitate  to  contradict  the  Attorney- General 
on  this  point,  and  to  proclaim  to  you  and  to  the  country  that  the 
Catholic  Board  is  perfectly  a  legal  assembly — that  it  not  only  does 
not  violate  the  law,  but  that  it  is  entitled  to  the  protection  of  the  law, 
and  in  the  very  proudest  tone  of  firmness,  I  hurl  defiance  at  the 
Attorney-General ! 

"  I  defy  him  to  allege  a  law  or  a  statute,  or  even  a  proclamation 
that  is  violated  by  the  Catholic  Board.  No,  gentlemen,  no ;  his 
religious   prejudices — if  the  absence  of  every  cliarity  can  be  called 


480  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

anything  religious — liis  religious  prej  udices  really  obscure  liis  reason, 
his  bigoted  intolerance  has  totally  darkened  his  understanding,  and 
he  mistakes  the  plainest  facts  and  misquotes  the  clearest  law,  in  the 
ardour  and  vehemence  of  his  rancour.  I  disdain  his  moderation — I 
scorn  his  forbearance — I  tell  him  he  knows  not  the  law  if  he  thinks 
as  he  says  ;  and  if  he  thinks  so,  I  tell  him  to  his  beard,  that  he  is  not 
honest  in  not  having  sooner  prosecuted  us,  and  I  challenge  him  to 
that  prosecution. 

"  It  is  strange — it  is  melancholy,  to  reflect  on  the  miserable  and 
mistaken  pride  that  must  inflate  him  to  talk  as  he  does  of  the  Catholic 
Board.  The  Catholic  Board  is  composed  of  men — I  include  not 
myself — of  course,  I  always  except  myself — every  way  his  superiors, 
in  birth,  in  fortune,  in  talents,  in  rank.  "What !  is  he  to  talk  of  the 
Catholic  Board  lightly  ?  At  their  head  is  the  Earl  of  Fingal,  a 
nobleman  whose  exalted  rank  stoops  beneath  the  superior  station  of 
his  virtues — whom  even  the  venal  minions  of  power  must  respect. 
We  are  engaged,  patiently  and  perseveringly  engaged,  in  a  struggle 
through  the  open  channels  of  the  constitution  for  our  liberties.  The 
son  of  the  ancient  earl  whom  I  have  mentioned  cannot  in  his  native 
land  attain  any  honourable  distinction  of  the  state,  and  yet  Mr. 
Attorney- General  linows  that  they  are  open  to  every  son  of  every 
bigoted  and  intemperate  stranger  that  may  settle  amongst  us. 

"  But  this  system  cannot  last ;  he  may  insult,  he  may  calumniate, 
he  may  prosecute  ;  but  the  Catholic  cause  is  on  its  majestic  march  ; 
its  progress  is  rapid  and  obvious ;  it  is  cheered  in  its  advance,  and 
aided  by  all  that  is  dignified  and  dispassionate — by  everything  that  is 
patriotic — by  all  the  honour,  all  the  integrity  of  the  empire  ;  and  its 
success  is  just  as  certain  as  the  return  of  to-morrow's  sun,  and  the 
close  of  to-morrow's  eve. 

"  We  will—rwe  must  soon  be  emancipated,  in  despite  of  the 
Attorney-General,  aided  as  he  is  by  his  august  allies,  the  aldermen 
of  Skinner's-alley.  In  despite  of  the  Attorney- General  and  the 
aldermen  of  Skinner's-alley,  our  emancipation  is  certain,  and  not 
distant. 

*'  I  have  no  difficulty  in  perceiving  the  motive  of  the  Attorney- 
General,  in  devoting  so  much  of  his  medley  oration  to  the  Catholic 
question,  and  to  the  expression  of  his  bitter  hatred  to  us,  and  of  his 
determination  to  ruin  our  hopes.  It  had,  to  be  sure,  no  connection 
with  the  cause,  but  it  had  a  dix'ect  and  natural  connection  with  you. 
He  has  been,  all  his  life,   reckoned  a  man  of  consummate  cunning 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  481 

and  dexterity ;  and  whilst  one  wonders  that  he  has  so  much  ex- 
posed himself  upon  those  prosecutions,  and  accounts  foi*  it  by  the 
proverbial  blindness  of  religious  zeal,  it  is  still  easy  to  discover  much 
of  his  native  cunning  and  dexterity.  Gentlemen,  he  thinks  he  knows 
his  men — he  knows  you  ;  many  of  you  signed  the  no-popery  peti- 
tion ;  he  heai'd  one  of  you  boast  of  it ;  he  knows  you  would  not 
have  been  summoned  on  this  jury,  if  you  had  entertained  liberal 
sentiments ;  he  knows  all  this,  and,  therefore,  it  is  that  he,  with  the 
artifice  and  cunning  of  an  experienced  nisi  prius  advocate,  endea- 
vours to  win  your  confidence,  and  command  your  affections  by  the 
display  of  ffis  congenial  illiberality  and  bigotry. 

"  You  are  all,  of  course,  Protestants ;  see  what  a  compliment  he 
pays  to  your  religion  and  his  own,  when  he  endeavours  thus  to 
procure  a  verdict  on  your  oaths ;  when  he  endeavours  to  seduce 
you  to  what,  if  you  were  so  seduced,  would  be  perjury,  by  indulging 
your  prejudices,  and  flattering  you  by  the  coincidence  of  his  senti- 
ments and  wishes.  Will  he  succeed,  gentlemen  ?  Will  you  allow 
him  to  draw  you  into  a  perj  ury  out  of  zeal  for  your  religion  ?  And 
will  you  violate  the  pledge  you  have  given  to  your  God  to  do  justice, 
in  order  to  gratify  your  anxiety  for  the  ascendancy  of  what  you 
believe  to  be  his  church  ?  Gentlemen,  reflect  on  the  strange  and 
monstrous  inconsistency  of  this  conduct,  and  do  not  commit,  if  you 
can  avoid  it,  the  pious  crime  of  violating  your  solemn  oaths,  in 
aid  of  the  pious  designs  of  the  Attorney- General  against  popery. 

**  Oh,  gentlemen !  it  is  not  in  any  lightness  of  heart  I  thus  address 
you — it  is  rather  in  bitterness  and  sorrow  ;  you  did  not  expect 
flattery  from  me,  and  my  client  was  little  disposed  to  offer  it  to  you ; 
besides,  of  what  avail  would  it  be  to  flatter,  if  you  came  here  pre- 
determined, and  it  is  too  plain  that  you  are  not  selected  for  this 
jury  from  any  notion  of  your  impartiality  ? 

"  But  when  I  talk  to  you  of  your  oaths  and  of  your  religion,  I 
would  full  fain  I  could  impress  you  with  a  respect  for  both  the  one 
and  the  other.  I,  who  do  not  flatter,  tell  you,  that  though  I  do  not 
join  with  you  in  belief,  I  have  the  most  unfeigned  respect  for  the 
form  of  Christian  faith  which  you  profess.  Would  that  its  sub- 
stance, not  its  forms  and  temporal  advantages,  were  deeply  im- 
pressed on  your  minds  !  then  should  I  not  address  you  in  the  cheerless 
and  hopeless  despondency  that  crowds  on  my  mind,  and  drives  me  to 
taunt  you  with  the  air  of  ridicule  I  do.  Gentlemen,  I  sincerely  respect 
and   venerate     your    religion,    hut  I   despise   and   I  now  apprehend 

2  1 


482  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

your  prejudices,  in  the  same  proportion  as  the  Attorney-General 
lias  cultivated  them.  In  plain  truth,  every  religion  is  good — every 
religion  is  true  to  him  who,  in  his  due  caution  and  conscience,  believes 
it.  There  is  but  one  bad  religion,  that  of  a  man  who  professes  a 
faith  which  he  does  not  believe;  but  the  good  religion  may  be,  and 
often  is,  corrupted  by  the  wretched  and  wicked  prejudices  which 
admit  a  difference  of  opinion  as  a  cause  of  hatred. 

*'  The  Attorney-General,  defective  in  argument — weak  in  his  cause, 
has  artfully  roused  your  prejudices  at  his  side.  I  have,  on  the 
contrary,  met  your  prejudices  boldly.  If  your  verdict  shall  be  for 
me,  you  will  be  certain  that  it  has  been  produced  by  nothing  but 
unwilling  conviction  resulting  from  sober  and  satisfied  judgment.  If 
your  verdict  be  bestowed  upon  the  artifices  of  the  Attorney- General, 
you  may  happen  to  be  right ;  but  do  yt)u  not  see  the  danger  of  its 
being  produced  by  an  admixture  of  passion  and  prejudice  with  your 
reason  ?  How  difiicult  is  it  to  separate  prejudice  from  reason,  when 
they  run  in  the  same  direction.  If  you  be  men  of  conscience,  then  I 
call  on  you  to  listen  to  me,  that  your  consciences  may  be  safe,  and 
your  reason  alone  be  the  guardian  of  your  oath,  and  the  sole  monitor 
of  your  decision. 

"  I  now  bring  you  to  the  immediate  subject  of  this  indictment. 
Mr.  Magee  is  charged  with  publishing  a  libel  in  his  paper  called  the 
Dublin  Evening  Post.  His  lordship  has  decided  that  there  is  legal 
proof  of  the  publication,  and  I  would  be  sorry  you  thought  of  acquit- 
ting Mr.  Magee,  under  the  pretence  of  not  believing  that  evidence. 
I  will  not,  therefore,  trouble  you  on  that  part  of  the  case ;  I  will  tell 
you,  gentlemen,  presently,  what  this  publication  is  ;  but  sufiPer  me 
first  to  inform  you  what  it  is  not — for  this  I  consider  to  be  very 
important  to  the  strong,  and  in  truth,  triumphant  defence  which  ray 
client  has  to  this  indictment, 

*'  Gentlemen,  this  is  not  a  libel  on  Charles  Lennox,  Duke  of  Rich- 
mond, in  his  private  or  individual  capacity.  It  does  not  interfere 
with  the  privacy  of  his  domestic  life.  It  is  free  from  any  reproach 
upon  his  domestic  habits  or  conduct ;  it  is  perfectly  pure  from  any 
attempt  to  traduce  his  personal  honour  or  integrity.  Towards  the 
man,  there  is  not  the  least  taint  of  malignity ;  nay,  the  thing  is  still 
stronger.  Of  Charles  Duke  of  Richmond,  personally,  and  as  dis- 
connected with  the  administration  of  public  affairs,  it  speaks  in 
terms  of  civility  arid  even  respect.  It  contains  this  passage  which  I 
read  from  the  indictment : — 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  483 

"  '  Had  he  remained  what  he  first  came  over,  or  what  he  afterwards 
professed  to  be,  he  would  have  retained  his  reputation  for  honest 
open  hostility,  defending  his  political  principles  with  firmness, 
perhaps  with  warmth,  but  without  rancour ;  the  supporter  and  not 
the  tool  of  an  administration ;  a  mistake  politician,  perhaps,  but  an 
honourable  man,  and  a  respectable  soldier.' 

"  The  Duke  is  here  in  this  libel,  my  lords — in  this  libel,  gentlemen 
of  the  jury,  the  Duke  of  Richmond  is  called  an  honourable  man, 
and  a  respectable  soldier !  Could  more  flattering  expressions  be 
invented  ?  Has  the  most  mercenary  Press  that  ever  yet  existed,  the 
mercenary  Press  of  this  metropolis,  contained  in  return  for  all  the 
money  it  has  received,  any  praise  which  ought  to  be  so  pleasing — 
'  an  honourable  man,  and  a  respectable  soldier  ?'  I  do,  therefore, 
beg  of  you,  gentlemen,  as  you  value  your  honesty,  to  carry  with  you 
in  your  distinct  recollection,  this  fact,  that  whatever  of  evil  this 
publication  may  contain,  it  does  not  involve  any  reproach  against 
the  Duke  of  Richmond,  in  any  other  than  in  his  public  and  oflicial 
character. 

"  I  have,  gentlemen,  next  to  require  you  to  take  notice,  that  this 
publication  is  not  indicted  as  a  seditious  libel.  The  word  seditious 
is,  indeed,  used  as  a  kind  of  make-weight  in  the  introductory  part  of 
the  indictment.  But  mark,  and  recollect,  that  this  is  not  an  indict- 
ment for  sedition.  It  is  not,  then,  for  private  slander,  nor  for  any 
oflfence  against  the  constitution,  that  Mr.  Magee  now  stands  arraigned 
before  you. 

*'  In  the  third  place,  gentlemen,  there  is  this  singular  feature  in 
this  case,  namely — that  this  libel,  as  the  prosecutor  calls  it,  is  not 
charged  in  this  indictment  to  be  '  false.' 

"  The  indictment  has  this  singular  difierence  from  any  other  I 
have  ever  seen,  that  the  assertions  of  the  publications  are  not  even 
stated  to  be  false. 

"  They  have  not  had  the  courtesy  to  you,  to  state  upon  record, 
that  these  charges,  such  as  they  are,  were  contrary  to  the  truth. 
This  I  believe  to  be  the  first  instance  in  which  the  allegation  of 
falsehood  has  been  omitted.  To  what  is  this  omission  to  be  attri- 
buted ?  Is  it  that  an  experiment  is  to  be  made,  how  much  further 
the  doctrine  of  the  criminality  of  truth  can  be  drawn  ?  Does  the 
prosecutor  wish  to  make  another  bad  precedent  ?  or  is  it  in  contempt 
of  any  distinction  between  truth  and  falsehood,  that  this  charge 
is  thus  framed ;  or  does  he  fear  that  you  Would  scruple  to  convict, 


484  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

if  the  indictment  charged  that  to  be  false,  which  you  all  know  to 
be  true? 

"  However  that  may  be,  I  will  have  you  to  remember,  that  you 
are  now  to  pronounce  upon  a  publication,  the  truth  of  which  is  not 
controverted.  Attend  to  th'e  case,  and  you  will  find  you  are  not  to 
try  Mr.  Magee  for  sedition  which  may  endanger  the  state,  or  for 
private  defamation  which  may  press  sorely  upon  the  heart,  and  blast 
the  prospects  of  a  private  family ;  and  that  the  subject  matter  for 
your  decision  is  not  characterized  as  false,  or  described  as  untrue. 

"  Such  are  the  circumstances  which  accompany  this  publication, 
on  which  you  are  to  pronounce  a  verdict  of  guilt  or  innocence, 
The  case  is  with  you  ;  it  belongs  to  you  exclusively  to  decide  it. 
His  lordship  may  advise,  but  he  cannot  control  your  decision,  and 
it  belongs  to  you  alone  to  say  whether  or  not,  upon  the  entire  matter, 
you  conceive  it  to  be  evidence  of  guilt,  and  deserving  of  punishment. 
The  statute  law  gives  or  recognises  this  your  right,  and,  therefore, 
imposes  this  on  you  as  your  duty.  The  legislative  has  precluded 
any  lawyer  from  being  able  to  dictate  to  you.  The  Solicitor- 
General  cannot  now  venture  to  promulgate  the  slavish  doctrine 
which  he  addressed  to  Doctor  Sheridan's  jury,  when  he  told  them, 
*  not  to  presume  to  differ  from  the  Court  in  matter  of  law.'  The  law 
and  the  fact  are  here  the  same,  namely — the  guilty  or  innocent 
design  of  the  publication. 

"  Indeed,  in  any  criminal  case,  the  doctrine  of  the  Solicitor- 
General  is  intolerable.  I  enter  my  solemn  protest  against  it.  The 
verdict  which  is  required  from  a  jury  in  any  criminal  case  has 
nothing  special  in  it — it  is  not  the  finding  of  the  fact  in  the  affirma- 
tive or  negative — it  is  not,  as  in  Scotland,  that  the  charge  is  proved 
or  not  proved.  No ;  the  jury  is  to  say  whether  the  prisoner  be  guilty 
or  not;  and  could  a  juror  find  a  true  verdict,  who  declared  a  man 
guilty  upon  evidence  of  some  act,  perhaps  praiseworthy,  but  clearly 
void  of  evil  design  or  bad  consequences  ? 

"  I  do,  therefore,  deny  the  doctrine  of  the  learned  gentleman  ;  it 
is  not  constitutional,  and  it  would  be  frightful  if  it  were.  No 
judge  can  dictate  to  a  jury — no  jury  ought  to  allow  itself  to  be 
dictated  to. 

'*  If  the  Solicitor- General's  doctrine  were  established,  see  what 
oppressive  consequences  might  result.  At  some  future  period,  some 
man  may  attain  the  first  place  on  the  bench,  by  the  reputation  which 
is  so  easily  acquired  by  a  certain  degree  of  church-wardening  piety, 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,  M.P.  485 

added  to  a  great  gravity,  and  maidenly  decorum  of  manners.  Such 
a  man  may  reach  the  bench — for  I  am  putting  a  mere  imaginary 
case— HE  may  be  a  man  without  PASSIONS,  and  THEREFORE 
without  VICES  ;  he  may,  my  lord,  be  a  man  superfluously  RICH, 
and,  therefore,  not  to  be  BRIBED  with  MONEY,  but  rendered 
PARTIAL  by  his  BIGOTRY,  and  CORRUPTED  by  his  PRE- 
JUDICES ;  such  a  man,  INFLATED  by  FLATTERY,  and 
BLOATED  in  his  dignity,  may  hereafter  use  that  character  for 
SANCTITY  which  has  served  to  promote  him,  as  a  sword,  to  hew 
down  the  struggling  liberties  of  his  country  ;  such  a  judge  may 
interfere  before  trial!  and  at  the  trial  be  a  PARTISAN ! 

"Gentlemen,  should  an  honest  jury — could  an  honest  jury  (if  an 
honest  jury  were  again  found)  listen  with  safety  to  the  dictates  of 
such  a  j  udge  ?  I  repeat  it,  therefore,  that  the  Solicitor-General  is 
mistaken — that  the  law  does  not,  and  cannot,  require  such  a  sub- 
mission as  he  preached  ;  and  at  all  events,  gentlemen,  it  cannot  be 
controverted,  that  in  the  present  instance,  that  of  an  alleged  libel, 
the  decision  of  all  law  and  fact  belongs  to  you. 

"  I  am  then  warranted  in  directing  to  you  some  observations  on 
the  law  of  libel,  and  in  doing  so,  I  disclaim  any  apology  for  the 
consumption  of  the  time  necessary  for  my  purpose.  Gentlemen,  my 
intention  is  to  lay  before  you  a  short  and  rapid  view  of  the  causes 
which  have  introduced  into  courts  the  monstrous  assertion — that 
truth  is  crime  ! 

"  It  is  to  be  deeply  lamented,  that  the  art  of  printing  was  unknown 
at  the  earlier  periods  of  our  history.  If,  at  the  time  the  barons 
wrung  the  simple  but  sublime  charter  of  liberty  from  a  timid,  pei'- 
fidious  sovereign,  from  a  violator  of  his  word,  from  a  man  covered 
with  disgrace,  and  sunk  in  infamy — if  at  the  time  when  that 
charter  was  confirmed  and  renewed,  the  Press  had  existed,  it  would, 
I  think,  have  been  the  first  care  of  those  friends  of  freedom  to  have 
established  a  principle  of  liberty  for  it  to  rest  upon,  which  might 
resist  every  future  assault.  Their  simple  and  unsophisticated  under- 
standings could  never  be  brought  to  comprehend  the  legal  subtleties 
by  which  it  is  now  argued,  that  falsehood  is  useful  and  innocent,  and 
truth,  the  emanation  and  the  type  of  heaven,  a  crime.  They  would 
have  cut  with  their  swords  the  cobweb  links  of  sophistry  in  which 
truth  is  entangled ;  and  they  would  have  rendered  it  impossible  to 
re-establish  this  injustice  without  violating  a  principle  of  the 
constitution. 


486  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

"  But  in  the  ignorance  of  the  blessing  of  a  free  Press,  they  could 
not  have  provided  for  its  security.  There  remains,  however,  an 
expression  of  their  sentiments  on  our  statute  books.  The  ancient 
parliament  did  pass  a  law  against  the  spreaders  of  false  rumours. 
This  law  proves  two  things — first,  that  before  this  statute,  it  was  not 
considered. a  crime  in  law  to  spread  even  a  false  rumour,  otherwise 
the  statute  would  have  been  unnecessary;  and  secondly,  that  in 
their  notion  of  crime,  falsehood  was  a  necessary  ingredient.  But 
here  I  have  to  remark  upon,  and  regret  the  strange  propensity  of 
judges,  to  construe  the  law  in  favour  of  tyranny,  and  against  liberty  ; 
for  servile  and  corrupt  judges  soon  decided,  that  upon  the  construc- 
tion of  this  law,  it  was  immaterial  whether  the  rumours  were  true 
or  false,  and  that  a  law  made  to  punish  false  rumours,  was  equally 
applicable  to  the  true. 

"  This,  gentlemen,  is  called  consteuction  ;  it  is  just  that  which, 
in  more  recent  times,  and  of  inevitable  consequence,  from  purer 
motives,  has  converted  ^pretence'  into  '■purposed 

"When  the  art  of  printing  was  invented,  its  value  to  every 
suiferer — its  terror  to  every  oppressor,  was  soon  obvious,  and  means 
were  speedily  adopted  to  prevent  its  salutary  effects.  The  Star- 
Chamber — the  odious  Star- Chamber,  jvas  either  created,  or,  at  least, 
enlarged  and  brought  into  activity.  Its  proceedings  were  arbitrary — 
its  decisions  were  oppressive,  and  injustice  and  tyranny  wei*e  formed 
into  a  system.  To  describle  it  to  you  in  one  sentence,  it  "WAS  A 
PREMATURELY  PACKED  JURY.  Perhaps  that  description 
does  not  shock  you  much.  Let  me  report  one  of  its  decisions  which 
will,  I  think,  make  its  horrors  more  sensible  to  you — it  is  a  ludicrous 
as  well  as  a  melancholy  instance. 

*'  A  tradesman — a  ruffian,  I  presume,  he  was  styled — in  an  alter- 
cation with  a  nobleman's  servant,  called  the  swan,  which  was  worn 
on  the  servant's  arm  for  a  badge,  a  goose.  For  this  offence — the  call- 
ing a  nobleman's  badge  of  a  swan,  a  goose,  he  was  brought  before  the 
Star- Chamber — he  was,  of  course,  convicted ;  he  lost,  as  I  recollect, 
one  of  his  ears  on  the  pillory — was  sentenced  to  two  years'  imprison- 
ment, and  a  fine  of  £500 ;  and  all  this  to  teach  him  to  distinguish 
sivans  from,  geese. 

"  I  now  ask  you,  to  what  is  it  you  tradesmen  and  merchants  are 
indebted  for  the  safety  and  respect  you  can  enjoy  in  society  ?  What 
is  it  which  has  rescued  you  from  the  slavery  in  which  persons  who 
ai"e  engaged  in  trade  were  held  by  the  iron  barons  of  former  days  ? 


DANIEL    o'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  487 

I  will  tell  you ;  it  is  the  light,  the  reason,  and  the  liberty  which  have 
been  created,  and  will,  in  despite  of  every  opposition,  be  perpetuated 
by  the  exertion  of  the  Press. 

"  Gentlemen,  the  Star-Chamber  was  particularly  vigilant  over  the 
infant  struggles  of  the  Press.  A  code  of  laws  became  necessary  to 
govern  the  new  enemy  to  prejudice  and  oppression — the  Press. 
The  Star-Chamber  adopted,  for  this  purpose,  the  civil  law,  as  it  is 
called — the  law  of  Rome — not  the  law  at  the  periods  of  her  liberty 
and  her  glory,  but  the  law  which  was  promulgated  when  she  fell 
into  slavery  and  disgrace,  and  recognised  this  principle,  that  the  will 
of  the  prince  was  the  rule  of  the  law.  The  civil  law  was  adopted  by 
the  Star-Chamber  as  its  guide  in  proceedings  against,  and  in 
punishing  libellers  ;  but,  unfortunately,  only  part  of  it  was  adopted, 
and  that,  of  course,  was  the  part  least  favourable  to  freedom.  So 
much  of  the  civil  law  as  assisted  to  discover  the  concealed  libeller, 
and  to  punish  him  when  discovered,  was  carefully  selected ;  but  the 
civil  law  allowed  truth  to  be  a  defence,  and  that  part  was  carefully 
I'ejected. 

"  The  Star-Chamber  was  soon  after  abolished.  It  was  suppressed 
by  the  hatred  and  vengeance  of  an  outraged  people,  and  it  has 
since,  and  until  our  days,  lived  only  in  the  recollection  of  abhorrence 
and  contempt.  But  we  have  fallen  upon  bad  days  and  evil  times ; 
and  in  our  days  we  have  seen  a  lawyer,  long  of  the  prostrate  and 
degraded  bar  of  England,  presume  to  suggest  an  high  eulogium  on 
the  Star-Chamber,  and  regret  its  downfall ;  and  he  has.  done  this 
in  a  book  dedicated,  by  permission,  to  Lord  Ellenborough.  This  is, 
perhaps,  an  ominous  circumstance ;  and  as  Star-Chamber  punishments 
have  been  revived — as  two  years  of  imprisonment  has  become 
familar,  I  know  not  how  soon  the  useless  lumber  of  even  well- 
selected  juries  may  be  abolished,  and  a  new  Star-Chamber  created. 

"  From  the  Star-Chamber,  gentlemen,  the  prevention  and  punish- 
ment of  libels  descended  to  the  courts  of  common  law,  and  with  the 
power  they  seem  to  have  inherited  much  of  the  spirit  of  that  tribunal. 
Servility  at  the  bar,  and  profligacy  on  the  bench,  have  not  been  want- 
ing to  aid  every  construction  unfavourable  to  freedom,  and  at  length 
it  is  taken  as  granted  and  as  clear  law,  that  truth  or  falsehood  ai'e 
quite  immaterial  circumstances,  constituting  no  part  of  either  guilt  or 
innocence. 

"  I  would  wish  to  examine  this  revolting  doctrine,  and,  in  doing  so, 
I  am  proud  to  tell  you,  that  it  has  no  other  foundation  than  in  the  oft^ 


488  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

repeated  assertions  of  lawyers  and  judges.  Its  authority  depends  on 
what  are  technically  called  the  dicta  of  the  judges  and  writers,  and 
not  upon  solemn  or  regular  adjudications  on  the  point.  One  servile 
lawyer  has  repeated  this  doctrine,  from  time  to  time,  after  another — 
and  one  overbearing  judge  has  re-echoed  the  assertion  of  a  time- 
serving predecessor,  and  the  public  have,  at  length,  submitted. 

**  I  do,  therefore,  feel,  not  only  gratified  in  having  the  occasion, 
but  bound  to  express  my  opinion  upon  the  real  law  of  this  subject. 
I  know  that  opinion  is  but  of  little  weight.  I  have  no  professional 
rank,  or  station,  or  talents  to  give  it  importance,  but  it  is  an  honest 
and  conscientious  opinion,  and  it  is  this — that  in  the  discussion  of 
public  subjects,  and  of  the  administration  of  public  men,  truth  is  a 
duty  and  not  a  crime. 

"  You  can,  at  least,  understand  my  description  of  the  liberty  of 
the  Press.  That  of  the  Attorney-General  is  as  unintelligible  as  con- 
tradictory. He  tells  you,  in  a  very  odd  and  quaint  phrase,  that  the 
liberty  of  the  Press  consists  in  there  being  no  previous  restraint 
upon  the  tongue  or  the  pen.  How  any  previous  restraint  could  be 
imposed  on  the  tongue  it  is  for  this  wisest  of  men  to  tell  you,  unless, 
indeed,  he  resorts  to  Doctor  Lad's  prescription  with  respect  to  the 
toothache  eradication.  Neither  can  the  absence  of  previous 
restraint  constitute  a  free  Press,  unless,  indeed,  it  shall  be  distinctly 
ascertained,  and  clearly  defined,  what  shall  be  subsequently  called  a 
crime.  If  the  crime  of  libel  be  undefined,  or  uncertain,  or  capricious, 
then,  instead  of  the  absence  of  restraint  before  publication  being  an 
advantage,  it  is  an  injury  instead  of  its  being  a  blessing ;  it  is  a 
curse — it  is  nothing  more  than  a  pitfall  and  snare  for  the  unwary. 
This  liberty  of  the  Press  is  only  an  opportunity  and  a  temptation 
offered  by  the  law  to  the  commission  of  crime — it  is  a  trap  laid  to 
catch  men  for  punishment — it  is  not  the  liberty  of  discussing  truth  or 
discountenancing  oppression,  but  a  mode  of  rearing  up  victims  for 
prosecution,  and  of  seducing  men  into  imprisonment. 

"  Yet,  can  any  gentleman  concerned  for  the  Crown  give  me  a 
definition  of  the  crime  of  libel  ?  Is  it  not  uncertain  and  undefined  ; 
and,  in  truth,  is  it  not,  at  this  moment,  quite  subject  to  the  caprice 
and  whim  of  the  judge  and  of  the  jury  ?  Is  the  Attorney- General — 
is  the  Solicitor- General  disposed  to  say  otherwise  ?  If  he  do,  he  must 
contradict  his  own  doctrine,  and  adopt  mine.  , 

"  But  no,    gentlemen,   they   must  leave    you    in   uncertainty   and  . 
doubt,  and  ask  you  to  give  a  verdict,  on  your  oath,  without  furnish- 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  489 

ing  you  with  any  rational  materials  to  judge  whether  you  be  right  or 
wrong.  Indeed,  to  such  a  wild  extent  of  caprice  has  Lord  Ellenbo- 
rough  carried  the  doctrine  of  crime  in  libel,  that  he  appears  to  have 
gravely  ruled,  that  it  was  a  crime  to  call  one  lord  '  a  stout-built, 
special  pleader,'  although,  in  point  of  fact,  that  lord  was  stout-built, 
and  had  been  very  many  years  a  special  pleader.  And  that  it  was  a 
crime  to  call  another  lord  '  a  sheep-feeder  from  Cambridgeshire,' 
although  that  lord  was  right  glad  to  have  a  few  sheep  in  that  county. 
These  are  the  extravagant  vagaries  of  the  Crown  lawyers  and  preroga- 
tive judges  ;  you  will  find  it  impossible  to  discover  any  rational  rule 
for  your  conduct,  and  can  never  rest  upon  any  satisfactory  view  of 
the  subject,  unless  you  are  pleased  to  adopt  my  description.  Reason 
and  justice  equally  recognize  it,  and  believe  me,  that  genuine  law  is 
much  more  closely  connected  with  justice  and  reason  than  some  per- 
sons will  avow. 

"  Gentlemen,  you  are  now  apprised  of  the  nature  of  the  alleged 
libel ;  it  is  a  discussion  upon  the  administration  of  public  men.  I 
have  also  submitted  to  you  my  view  of  the  law  applicable  to  such  a 
publication  ;  we  are,  therefore,  prepared  to  go  into  the  consideration 
of  every  sentence  in  the  newspaper  in  question. 

"But  before  I  do  so,  just  allow  me  to  point  your  attention  to  the 
motives  of  this  young  gentleman.  The  Attorney-General  has  threat- 
ened him  with  fine  and  a  dungeon  ;  he  has  told  Mr.  Magee  that  he 
should  suffer  in  his  purse  and  in  his  person.  Mr.  Magee  knew  his 
danger  well.  Mr.  Magee,  before  he  published  this  paper,  was  quite 
apprised  that  he  ran  the  risk  of  fine  and  of  imprisonment.  He  knew 
also  that  if  he  changed  his  tone — that  if  he  became  merely  neutral, 
but  especially,  if  he  went  over  to  the  other  side  and  praised  the  Duke 
of  Richmond — if  he  had  sufficient  gravity  to  talk,  without  a  smile,  of 
the  sorrow  of  the  people  of  Ireland  at  his  grace's  departure — if  he 
had  a  visage  sufficiently  lugubrious,  to  say  so  without  laughing,  to 
cry  out  '  mournfully,  oh  !  mournfully !'  for  the  departure  of  the  Duke 
of  Richmond — if,  at  a  period  when  the  people  of  Ireland,  from 
Magherafelt  to  Dingledecouch,  are  rejoicing  at  that  departure,  Mr. 
Magee  could  put  on  a  solemn  countenance  and  pick  up  a  grave  and 
narcotic  accent,  and  have  the  resolution  to  assert  the  sorrow  of  the 
people  for  losing  so  sweet  and  civil  a  Lord  Lieutenant — why,  in  that 
case,  gentlemen,  you  know  the  consequences.  They  are  obvious. 
He  might  libel  certain  classes  of  his  Majesty's  subjects  with  impu- 
nity ;  he  would  get   abundance  of  money,  a  place,  and  a  pension — 


490  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

you  know  he  would.  The  proclamations  would  be  inserted  in  his 
paper.  The  wide-street  advertisements,  the  ordnance,  the  barrack- 
board  notices,  and  the  advertisements  of  all  the  other  public  boards 
and  offices — you  can  scarcely  calculate  how  much  money  he  sacrifices 
to  his  principles.  I  am  greatly  within  bounds  when  I  say,  at  least, 
£5,000  per  annum,  of  the  public  money,  would  reach  him  if  he  was 
to  alter  his  tone,  and  abandon  his  opinions. 

"  Has  he  instructed  me  to  boast  of  the  sacrifices  he  thus  makes  ? 
No,  gentlemen,  no,  no  ;  he  deems  it  no  sacrifice,  because  he  desires  no 
share  in  the  public  plunder  ;  but  I  introduce  this  topic  to  demonstrate 
to  you  the  purity  of  his  intentions.  He  cannot  be  actuated,  in  the 
part  he  takes,  by  mean  or  mercenary  motives ;  it  is  not  the  base 
lucre  of  gain  that  leads  him  astray.  If  he  be  mistaken,  he  is,  at 
least,  disinterested  and  sincere.  You  may  dislike  his  political 
opinions,  but  you  cannot  avoid  respecting  the  independence  of  his 
principles. 

"  Behold,  now,  the  publication  which  this  man  of  pure  principles 
is  called  to  answer  for  as  a  libel.     It  commences  thus : — 

"' DUKE  OF  RICHMOND. 

"  *  As  the  Duke  of  Richmond  will  shortly  retire  from  the  govern- 
ment of  Ireland,  it  has  been  deemed  necessary  to  take  such  a  review 
of  his  administration,  as  may,  at  least,  warn  his  successor  from  pursu- 
ing the  errors  of  his  grace's  conduct. 

"  '  The  review  shall  contain  many  anecdotes  of  the  Irish  court 
which  were  never  published,  and  which  were  so  secret,  that  his 
grace  will  not  fail  to  be  surprised  at  the  sight  of  them  in  a  news- 
paper.' 

"  In  this  paragraph  there  is  nothing  libellous  ;  it  talks  of  the 
errors,  indeed,  of  his  grace's  administration  ;  but  I  do  not  think  the 
Attorney-General  will  venture  to  suggest,  that  the  gentle  expression 
of  '  errors,'  is  a  libel. 

"  To  err,  gentlemen,  is  human :  and  his  grace  is  admitted,  by  the 
Attoi'ney- General,  to  be  but  a  man  ;  I  shall  waste  none  of  your  time 
in  proving,  that  we  may,  without  offence,  treat  of  his  '  errors.'  But 
this  is  not  even  the  errors  of  the  man,  but  of  his  administration ;  it 
Avas  not  infallible,  I  humbly  presume. 

"  I  call  your  particular  attention  to  the  second  paragraph  ;  it  runs 
thus : — 

"  '  If  the  administration  of  the  Duke  of  Richmond  had  been  con- 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,  M.P.  491 

ducted  with  more  than  ordinary  talent,  its  errors  might,  in  some 
degree  have  been  atoned  for  by  its  ability,  and  the  people  of  Ireland 
though  they  might  have  much  to  regret,  yet,  would  have  something 
to  admire ;  but  truly,  after  the  gravest  consideration,  they  must  find 
themselves  at  a  loss  to  discover  any  striking  feature  in  his  grace's 
administration,  that  makes  it  superior  to  the  worst  of  his  predecessors.' 

"  The  Attorney-General  dwelt  much  upon  this  paragraph,  gentle- 
men, and  the  importance  which  he  attached  to  it  furnishes  a  strong 
illustration  of  his  own  consciousness  of  the  weakness  of  his  case. 
What  is  the  meaning  of  this  paragraph  ?  I  appeal  to  you  whether  it 
be  more  than  this — that  there  has  been  nothing  admirable  in  this 
administration — that  there  has  not  been  much  ability  displayed  by 
it.  So  far,  gentlemen,  there  is,  indeed,  no  flattery,  but  still  less  of 
libel,  unless  you  are  prepared  to  say,  that  to  withhold  praise  from 
any  administration  deserves  punishment. 

"  Is  it  an  indictable  offence  not  to  perceive  its  occult  talents  ? 
Why,  if  it  be,  find  my  client  guilty  of  not  being  a  sycophant  and  a 
flatterer,  and  send  him  to  prison  for  two  years,  to  gratify  the 
Attorney- General,  who  tells  you  that  the  Duke  of  Richmond  is  the 
best  chief  governor  Ireland  ever  saw. 

"  But  the  mischief,  I  am  told,  lies  in  the  art  of  the  sentence. 
Why,  all  that  it  says  is,  that  it  is  difficult  to  discover  the  striking 
features  that  distinguish  this  from  bad  administrations.  It  does  not, 
gentlemen,  assert  that  no  such  striking  features  exist,  much  less 
does  it  assert  that  no  features  of  that  kind  exist,  or  that  such  fea- 
tures, although  not  striking  are  not  easily  discernible.  So  that, 
really,  you  are  here  again  required  to  convict  a  man  for  not  flatter- 
ing. He  thinks  an  administration  untalented  and  silly ;  that  is  no 
crime  ;  he  says,  it  has  not  been  marked  with  talent  or  ability — that 
it  has  no  striking  features  ;  all  this  may  be  mistaken  and  false,  yet 
there  is  nothing  in  it  that  resembles  a  crime. 

"  And,  gentlemen,  if  it  be  true — if  this  be  a  foolish  administration, 
can  it  be  an  offence  to  say  so  ?  If  it  has  had  no  striking  features 
to  distinguish  it  from  bad  administrations,  can  it  be  criminal  to  say 
so  ?  Are  you  prepared  to  say,  that  not  one  word  of  truth  can  be 
told  under  no  less  a  penalty  than  years  of  a  dungeon  and  heavy 
fines  ? 

"  Recollect,  that  the  Attorney-General  told  you  that  the  Press 
was  the  protection  of  the  people  against  the  government.  Good 
Heaven  !  gentlemen,  how  can  it  protect  the  people  against  the  govern- 


492  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

ment,  if  it  be  a  crime  to  say  of  that  government  that  it  has  com- 
mitted errors,  displays  little  talent,  and  has  no  striking  features? 
Did  the  prosecutor  mock  you,  when  he  talked  of  the  protection 
the  Press  afforded  to  the  people  ?  If  he  did  not  insult  you  by  the 
admission  of  that  upon  which  he  will  not  allow  you  to  act,  let 
me  ask,  against  what  is  the  Press  to  protect  the  people  ?  When  do 
the  people  want  protection  ? — when  the  government  is  engaged  in 
delinquencies,  oppression,  and  crimes.  It  is  against  these  that  the 
people  want  the  protection  of  the  Press.  Now,  I  put  it  to  your 
plain  sense,  whether  the  Press  can  afford  such  protection,  if  it  be 
punished  for  treating  of  these  crimes  ? 

"  Still  more,  can  a  shadow  of  protection  be  given  by  a  Press  that 
is  not  permitted  to  mention  the  errors,  the  talents,  and  the  striking 
features  of  an  administration  ?  Here  is  a  watchman  admitted  by  the 
Attorney-General  to  be  at  his  post  to  warn  the  people  of  tlieir  danger, 
and  the  first  thing  that  is  done  to  this  watchman  is  to  knock  him 
down  and  bring  him  to  a  dungeon,  for  announcing  the  danger  he  is 
bound  to  disclose.  I  agree  with  theAttorney-General,  the  Press  is  a 
protection,  but  it  is  not  in  its  silence  or  in  its  voice  of  flattery.  It 
can  protect  only  by  speaking  out  when  there  is  danger,  or  error, 
or  want  of  ability.  If  the  harshness  of  this  tone  be  complained  of,  I 
ask,  what  is  it  the  Attorney-General  would  have  ?  Does  he  wish  that 
this  protection  should  speak  so  as  not  to  be  understood ;  or,  I  again 
repeat  it,  does  he  mean  to  delude  us  with  the  name  and  the  mockery 
of  protection  ?  Upon  this  ground,  I  defy  you  to  find  a  verdict  for 
the  prosecutor,  without  declaring  that  he  has  been  guilty  of  an 
attempt  to  deceive,  when  he  talked  of  the  protection  of  the  Press 
against  errors,  ignorance,  and  incapacity,  which  it  is  not  to  dare  even 
to  name.  Gentlemen,  upon  this  second  paragraph,  I  am  entitled  to 
your  verdict,  upon  the  Attorney- General's  own  admission. 

"  He,  indeed,  passed  on  to  the  next  sentence  with  an  air  of 
triumph,  with  the .  apparent  certainty  of  its  producing  a  conviction ; 
I  meet  him  upon  it — I  read  it  boldly — I  will  discuss  it  with  you 
manfully — it  is  this  : 

"  '  They  insulted,  they  oppressed,  they  murdered,  and  they  de- 
ceived.' 

"  The  Attorney- General  told  us,  rather  ludicrously,  that  they, 
meaning  the  Duke's  predecessors,  included,  of  course,  himself.  How 
a  man  could  be  included  amongst  his  predecessors,  it  would  be  dif- 
ficult to  discover.     It  seems  to  be  that  mode  of  expression  which 


DANIEL    o'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  493 

would  indicate,  that  the  Attorney-General,  notwithstanding  his 
foreign  descent,  has  imbibed  some  of  the  language  of  the  native 
Irish.  But  our  blunders  arise,  not  like  this,  from  a  confusion  of 
idea ;  they  are  generally  caused  by  too  great  condensation  of  thought ; 
they  are,  indeed,  frequently  of  the  head,  but  never — never  of  the 
heart.  Would  I  could  say  so  much  for  the  Attorney- General ;  his 
blunder  is  not  to  be  attributed  to  his  cool  and  cautious  head  ;  it 
sprung,  I  much  fear,  from  the  misguided  bitterness  of  the  bigotry  of 
his  heart. 

"  Well,  gentlemen,  this  sentence  does,  in  broad  and  distinct  terms, 
charge  the  predecessors  of  the  Duke,  but  not  the  Duke  himself,  with 
insult,  oppression,  murder,  and  deceit.  But  it  is  history,  gentlemen  : 
are  you  prepared  to  silence  the  voice  of  history  ?  Are  you  disposed  to 
suppress  the  recital  of  facts — the  story  of  the  events  of  former  days  ? 
Is  the  historian,  and  the*  publisher  of  history,  to  be  exposed  to  in- 
dictment and  punishment  ? 

"  Let  me  read  for  you  two  passages  from  Doctor  Leland's  History 
of  Ireland.  I  choose  a  remote  period,  to  avoid  shocking  your  preju- 
dices, by  the  recital  of  the  more  modern  crimes  of  the  faction  to  which 
most  of  you  belong.    Attend  to  this  passage,  gentlemen. 

"'Anno  1574 A  solemn  peace  and  concord  was  made  between 

the  Earl  of  Essex  and  Felim  O'Nial.  However,  at  a  feast,  wherein 
the  Earl  entertained  that  chieftain,  and  at  the  end  of  their  good  cheer, 
O'Nial,  with  his  wife,  were  seized;  their  friends,  who  attended,  were 
put  to  the  sword  before  their  faces.  Felim,  together  with  his  wife 
and  brother,  were  conveyed  to  Dublin,  where  they  were  cut  up  in 

QUARTERS.' 

"  How  would  you  have  this  fact  described  ?  In  what  lady-like 
terms  is  the  future  historian  to  mention  this  savage,  and  brutal  mas- 
sacre. Yet  Essex  was  an  English  nobleman — a  predecessor  of  his 
Grace  ;  he  was  accomplished,  gallant,  and  gay ;  the  envied  paramour 
of  the  virgin  queen  ;  and,  if  he  afterwards  fell  on  the  scaffold,  one  of 
the  race  of  the  ancient  Irish  may  be  permitted  to  indulge  the  fond 
superstition  that  would  avenge  the  royal  blood  of  the  O'Nial  and  of 
his  consort,  on  their  perfidious  English  murderer. 

"  But  my  soul  fills  with  bitterness,  and  I  will  read  of  no  more 
Irish  murders.  I  turn,  however,  to  another  page,  and  I  will  intro- 
duce to  your  notice  another  predecessor  of  his  Grace  the  Duke  of 
Richmond.  It  is  Grey,  who,  after  the  recall  of  Essex,  commanded 
the  English  forces  in  Munster.     The  fort  of  Smerwick,  in  Kerry, 


494  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

surrendered  to  Grey  at  discretion.  It  contained  some  Irish  troops, 
and  more  than  700  Spaniards.     The  historian  shall  tell  you  the  rest : 

" '  That  mercy  for  which  they  sued  was  rigidly  denied  them. 
Wingfield  was  commissioned  to  disarm  them,  and  when  this  service 
was  performed,  an  English  company  was  sent  into  the  fort. 

" '  The  Irish  rebels  found  they  were  reserved  for  execution  by 
martial  law. 

" '  The  Italian  genei'al  and  some  officers  were  made  prisoners  of 
war  :  but  the  garrison  was  butchered  in  cold  blood ;  nor  is  it  with- 
out pain,  that  we  find  a  service,  so  horrid  and  detestable,  committed 
to  Sir  Walter  Raleigh.' 

"  '  The  garrison  was  butchered  in  cold  blood,'  says  the  historian. 
Furnish  us,  Mr.  Attorney-General,  with  gentle  accents  and  sweet 
words,  to  speak  of  this  savage  atrocity ;  or  will  you  indict  the  author  ? 
Alas !  he  is  dead,  full  of  years  and  respect — as  faithful  an  historian 
as  the  prejudices  of  his  day  would  allow,  and  a  beneficed  clergyman 
of  your  church. 

"  Gentlemen  of  the  jury,  what  is  the  mild  language  of  this  paper 
compared  with  the  indignant  language  of  history  ?  Raleigh — the 
ill-starred  Raleigh — fell  a  victim  to  a  tyrant  master,  a  corrupt  or 
overawed  jury,  and  a  virulent  Attorney- General ;  he  was  baited  at 
the  bar  with  language  more  scurrilous  and  more  foul  than  that  you 
heard  yesterday  poured  upon  my  client.  Yet,  what  atonement  to 
civilization  could  his  death  afibrd  for  the  horrors  I  have  mentioned  ? 

"  Decide,  now,  gentlemen,  between  those  libels — between  that 
defamer's  history  and  my  client.  He  caUs  those  predecessors  of  his 
grace,  murderers.  History  has  left  the  living  records  of  their  crimes 
from  the  O'Nial,  treacherously  slaughtered,  to  the  cruel,  cold 
butchery  of  the  defenceless  prisoners.  Until  I  shall  see  the  publishers 
of  Leland  and  of  Hume  brought  to  your  bar,  I  defy  you  to  convict 
my  client. 

"  To  show  you  that  my  client  has  treated  these  predecessors  of  his 
grace  with  great  lenity,  I  will  introduce  to  your  notice  one,  and  only 
one  more  of  them ;  and  he,  too,  fell  on  the  scafibld — the  unfortunate 
Strafibrd,  the  best  servant  a  despotic  king  could  desire. 

"  Amongst  the  means  taken  to  raise  money  in  Ireland  for  James 
the  First,  and  his  son  Charles^  a  proceeding  called  '  a  commission  to 
inquire  into  defective  titles,'  was  invented.  It  was  a  scheme,  gentle- 
men, to  inquire  of  every  man  what  right  he  had  to  his  own  property, 
and  to  have  it  solemnly  and  legally  determined  that  he  had  none.    To 


DANIEL    O  CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  495 

effectuate  this  scheme  required  great  management,  discretion,  and 
integrity.  First,  there  were  4,000  excellent  horse  raised  for  the 
purpose  of  being,  as  Strafford  himself  said,  'good  lookers-on.'  The 
rest  of  the  arrangement  I  would  recommend  to  modern  practice ;  it 
would  save  much  trouble.  I  will  shortly  abstract  it  from  two  of 
Strafford's  own  letters. 

"  The  one  appears  to  have  been  written  by  him  to  the  Lord 
Treasurer ;  it  is  dated  the  3rd  December,  1634.  He  begins  with  an 
apology  for  not  having  been  more  expeditious  in  this  work  of  plun- 
der, for  his  employers  were,  it  seems,  impatient  at  the  melancholy 
waste  of  time.     He  then  says — 

"  '  Howbeit,  I  will  redeem  the  time  as  much  as  I  can,  with  such 
as  may  give  furtherance  to  the  king's  title,  and  will  inquire  out  fit 

MEN  TO  SERVE  UPON  THE  JURIES.' 

''  Take  notice  of  that,  gentlemen,  I  pray  you ;  perhaps  you  thought 
that  the  '  packing  of  juries'  was  a  modern  invention — a  new  dis- 
covery. You  see  how  greatly  mistaken  you  were ;  the  thing  has 
example  and  precedent  to  support  it,  and  the  authority  of  both  are, 
in  our  law,  quite  conclusive. 

"  The  next  step  was  to  corrupt — oh,  no,  to  interest  the  wise  and 
learned  judges.  But  commentary  becomes  unnecessary,  when  I  read 
for  you  this  passage  from  a  letter  of  his  to  the  King,  dated  the  9th  of 
December,  1636  : — 

"  *  Your  Majesty  was  graciously  pleased,  upon  my  humble  advice,  to  bestow 
foiu:  shillings  in  the  pound  upon  your  Lord  Chief  Justice  and  Lord  Cbief  Baron 
in  this  kingdom,  fourth  of  the  first  yearly  rent  raised  upon  the  commission  of 
defective  title,  which,  upon  observation,  I  find  to  he  the  best  given  thai  ever  was. 
For  now  they  do  intend  it,  with  a  care  and  diligence,  such  as  if  it  were  their 
own  private,  and  most  certain  gaining  to  themselves  ;  every  four  shiUings  once 
paid,  shall  better  your  revenue  for  ever  after,  at  least  five  pounds.' 

*'  Thus,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  all  was  ready  for  the  mockery  of 
law  and  justice,  called  a  trial. 

"  Now,  let  me  take  any  one  of  you ;  let  me  place  him  here,  where 
Mr.  Magee  stands ;  let  him  have  his  property  at  stake ;  let  it  be  of  less 
value,  I  pray  you,  than  a  compensation  for  two  years'  imprisonment ; 
it  will,  however,  be  of  sufficient  value  to  interest  and  rouse  all  your 
agony  and  anxiety.  If  you  were  so  placed  here,  you  would  see  before 
you  the  well-paid  Attorney- General,  perhaps,  malignantly  delighted 
to  pour  his  rancour  upon  you ;  on  the  bench  would  sit  the  corrupt 


496  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

and  partisan  judge,  and  before  you,  on  that  seat  which  you  now 
occupy,  would  be  placed  the  packed  and  predetermined  jury. 

"  I  beg,  sir,  to  know  what  would  be  your  feelings,  your  honour, 
your  rage ;  would  you  not  compare  the  Attorney- General  to  the 
gambler  who  played  with  a  loaded  die,  and  then  you  would  hear  him 
talk,  in  solemn  and  monotonous  tones,  of  his  conscience !  Oh,  his 
conscience,  gentlemen  of  the  jury! 

"  But  the  times  are  altered.  The  Press,  the  Press,  gentlemen,  has 
effectuated  a  salutary  revolution  ;  a  commission  of  defective  titles 
would  no  longer  be  tolerated;  the  judges  can  no  longer  be  bribed 

with  money,  and  juries  can  no  longer  be I  must  not  say  it. 

Yes,  they  can,  you  know — we  all  know  they  can  be  still  inquired  out, 
and  'packed,'  as  the  technical  phrase  is.  But  you,  who  are  not 
packed,  you,  who  have  heen  fairly  selected,  wiU  see  that  the  language 
of  the  publication  before  us  is  mildness  itself,  compared  with  that 
which  the  truth  of  history  requires — compared  with  that  which  history 
has  already  used. 

**  I  proceed  with  this  alleged  libel. 

"  The  next  sentence  is  this — 

"  '  The  profligate,  unprincipled  Westmoreland.'  I  throw  down  the 
paper  and  address  myself  in  particular  to  some  of  you.  There  are,  I 
see,  amongst  you  some  of  our  Bible  distributors,  '  and  of  our  sup- 
pressors of  vice.'  Distributors  of  Bibles,  suppressors  of  vice — what 
call  you  profligacy  ?  Wliat  is  it  you  would  call  pi'ofligacy  ?  Suppose 
the  peerage  was  exposed  to  sale — set  up  at  open  auction —  it  was  at 
that  time  a  judicial  ofiice — Suppose  that  its  price,  the  exact  price  of 
this  judicial  office,  was  accurately  ascertained  by  daily  experience — 
would  you  call  that  profligacy  ?  If  pensions  were  multiplied  beyond 
bounds  and  beyond  example — if  places  were  augmented  until  inven- 
tion was  exhausted,  and  then  were  subdivided  and  split  into  halves,  so 
that  two  might  take  the  emoluments  of  each,  and  no  person  do  the 
duty — if  these  acts  were  resorted  to  in  order  to  corrupt  your 
representatives — would  you,  gentle  suppressors  of  vice,  caU  that 
profligacy  ? 

"  If  the  father  of  children  selected  in  the  open  day  his  adultress 
paramour — if  the  wedded  mother  of  children  displayed  her  crixne 
unblushingly — if  the  assent  of  the  titled  or  untitled  wittol  to  his  own 
shame  was  purchased  with  the  people's  money — if  this  scene — if  these 
were  enacted  in  the  open  day,  would  you  call  that  profligacy,  sweet 
distributors  of  Bibles?     The  women  of  Ireland  have  always  been 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  497 

beauteous  to  a  proverb ;  tliey  were  without  an  exception,  chaste 
beyond  the  terseness  of  a  proverb  to  express  ;  they  are  still  as  chaste 
as  in  former  days,  but  the  depraved  example  of  a  depraved  court  has 
furnished  some  exceptions,  and  the  action  or  criminal  conversation, 
before  the  time  of  Westmoreland  unknown,  has  since  become  more 
familiar  to  our  courts  of  justice. 

"  Call  you  the  sad  example  which  produced  those  exceptions — call 
you  that  profligacy,  suppressors  of  vice  and  Bible  distributors  ?  The 
vices  of  the  poor  are  within  the  reach  of  control ;  to  suppress  them, 
you  can  call  in  aid  the  churchwarden  and  the  constable  ;  the  justice 
of  the  peace  will  readily  aid  you,  for  he  is  a  gentleman — the  Court 
of  Sessions  will  punish  those  vices  for  you  by  fine,  by  imprisonment, 
and,  if  you  are  urgent,  by  whipping.  But,  suppressors  of  vice,  who 
shall  aid  you  to  suppress  the  vices  of  the  great  ?  Are  you  sincei*e, 
or  are  you,  to  use  your  own  phraseology,  whitewashed  tombs — painted 
charnel-houses  ?  Be  ye  hypocrites  ?  If  you  are  not — if  you  be 
sincere — (and,  oh,  how  I  wish  that  you  were) — if  you  be  sincere,  I 
will  steadily  require  to  know  of  you,  what  aid  you  expect,  to  suppress 
the  vices  of  the  rich  and  great  ?  Who  will  assist  you  to  suppress 
those  vices  ?  The  churchwarden ! — why  he,  I  believe,  handed 
them  into  the  best  pew  in  one  of  your  cathedrals,  that  they 
might  lovingly  hear  Divine  service  together.  The  constable ! ! — 
absurd.  The  justice  of  the  peace ! — no,  upon  his  honour.  As  to 
the  Court  of  Sessions,  you  cannot  expect  it  to  interfere  ;  and,  my 
lords,  the  judges  are  really  so  busy  at  the  assizes,  in  hurrying  the 
grand  juries  through  the  presentments,  that  there  is  no  leisure  to  look 
after  the  scandalous  faults  of  the  great.  Who,  then,  sincere  and  candid 
suppressors  of  vice,  can  aid  you? — The  Press;  the  Press  alone 
talks  of  the  profligacy  of  the  great ;  and,  at  least,  shames  into 
decency  those  whom  it  may  fail  to  correct.  The  Press  is  your, 
but  your  only,  assistant.  Go,  then,  men  of  conscience,  men  of 
religion — go,  then,  and  convict  John  Magee,  because  he  published 
that  Westmoreland  was  profligate  and  unprincipled  as  a  lord  lieu- 
tenant— do,  convict,  and  then  return  to  your  distribution  of  Bibles 
and  to  your  attacks  upon  the  recreations  of  the  poor,  under  the  name 
of  vices ! 

"  Do,  convict  the  only  aid  which  virtue  has,  and  distribute  youi* 
Bibles  that  you  may  have  the  name  of  being  religious  ;  upon  your 
sincerity  depends  my  client's  prospect  of  a  verdict.  Does  he  lean 
upon  a  broken  reed  ? 

2  K 


498  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

"I  pass  on  from  the  sanctified  portion  of  the  jury  which  I  have 
latterly  addressed,  and  I  call  the  attention  of  you  all  to  the  next 
member  of  the  sentence — 

"  '  The  cold-hearted  and  cruel  Camden.' 

"Here  I  have  your  prejudices  all  armed  against  me.  In  the 
administration  of  Camden,  your  faction  was  cherished  and  triumphant. 
Will  you  prevent  him  to  be  called  cold  and  cruel  ?  Alas !  to-day, 
why  have  I  not  men  to  address  who  would  listen  to  me  for  the  sake 
of  impartial  justice !  But  even  with  you  the  case  is  too  powerful  to 
allow  me  to  despair. 

"  Well,  /  do  say,  the  cold  and  cruel  Camden.  Why,  on  one  circuit, 
during  his  administration,  there  were  ONE  HUNDRED  INDI- 
VIDUALS TRIED  BEFORE  ONE  JUDGE;  OF  THESE 
NINETY-EIGHT  WERE  CAPITALLY  CONVICTED,  AND 
NINETY-SEVEN  HANGED!  I  understand  one  escaped;  but 
he  was  a  soldier  who  murdered  a  peasant,  or  something  of  that 
TRIVIAL  nature — NINETY- SEVEN  victims  in  one  circuit ! ! ! 

"  In  the  meantime,  it  was  necessary,  for  the  purposes  of  the  Union, 
that  the  flame  of  rebellion  should  be  fed.  The  meetings  of  the  rebel 
colonels  in  the  north  were,  for  a  length  of  time,  regularly  reported  to 
government ;  but  the  rebellion  was  not  then  ripe  enough :  and  whilst 
the  fruit  was  coming  to  maturity,  under  the  fostering  hand  of  the 
Administration,  the  wretched  dupes  atoned  on  the  gallows  for 
allowing  themselves  to  be  deceived. 

"  In  the  meantime  the  soldiery  were  turned  in  at  free  quarters 
amongst  the  wives  and  daughters  of  the  peasantry  ! !  I 

"  Have  you  heard  of  Abercrombie,  the  valiant  and  the  good — he 
who,  mortally  wounded,  neglected  his  wound  until  victory  was 
ascertained — he  who  allowed  his  life's  stream  to  flow  unnoticed 
because  his  country's  battle  was  in  suspense — he  who  died  the  martyr 
of  victory — ^he  who  commenced  the  career  of  glory  on  the  land,  and 
taught  French  insolence,  than  which  there  is  nothing  so  perma- 
nent— even  transplanted,  it  exhibits  itself  to  the  third  and  fourth 
generation — he  taught  French  insolence,  that  the  British  and  Irish 
soldier  was  as  much  his  superior  by  land  as  the  sailor  was  con- 
fessedly by  sea — he,  in  short,  who  commenced  that  career  which  has 
since  placed  the  Irish  Wellington  on  the  highest  pinnacle  of  glory. 
Abercrombie  and  Moore  were  in  Ireland  under  Camden.  Moore, 
too,  has  since  fallen  at  the  moment  of  triumph — Moore,  the  best  of 
sons,  of  brothers,  of  friends,  of  men — the  soldier  and  the  scholar — the 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  499 

soul  of  reason  and  the  heart  of  pity — Moore  has,  in  documents  of 
which  you  may  plead  ignorance,  left  his  opinions  upon  record  with 
respect  to  the  cruelty  of  Camden's  administration.  But  you  all  have 
heard  of  Aberci'ombie's  proclamation,  for  it  amounted  to  that ;  he 
proclaimed  that  cruelty  in  terms  the  most  unequivocal ;  he  stated  to 
the  soldiery  and  to  the  nation,  that  the  conduct  of  the  Camden 
Administration  had  rendered  *  the  soldiery  formidable  to  all  but  the 
enemy.' 

"  Was  there  no  cruelty  in  thus  degrading  the  British  soldier  ? 
And  say,  was  not  the  process  by  which  that  degradation  was  effec- 
tuated cruelty  ?  Do,  then,  contradict  Abercrombie,  upon  your  oaths, 
if  you  dare;  but,  by  doing  so,  it  is  not  my  client  alone  you 
will  convict — you  will  also  convict  yourselves  of  the  foul  ci'ime  of 
perjury, 

"  I  now  come  to  the  third  branch  of  this  sentence ;  and  here  I 
have  an  easy  task.  All,  gentlemen,  that  is  said  of  the  artificer  and 
superintendent  of  the  Union  is  this — 'the  artful  and  treacherous 
CornwaUis.'  Is  it  necessary  to  prove  that  the  Union  was  effectuated 
by  artifice  and  treachery  ?  For  my  part,  it  makes  my  blood  boil 
when  I  think  of  the  unhappy  period  which  was  contrived  and  seized 
on  to  carry  it  into  effect ;  one  year  sooner,  and  it  would  have  made 
a  revolution — one  year  later,  and  it  would  have  been  for  ever  impos- 
sible to  carry  it.  The  moment  was  artfully  and  treacherously  seized 
on,  and  our  country,  that  was  a  nation  for  countless  ages,  has 
dwindled  into  a  province,  and  her  name  and  her  glory  are  extinct  for 
ever. 

*'  I  should  not  waste  a  moment  upon  this  part  of  the  case,  but  that 
the  gentlemen  at  the  other  side  who  opposed  that  measure  have 
furnished  me  with  some  topics  which  I  may  not,  cannot  omit. 
Indeed  Mr.  Magee  deserves  no  verdict  from  any  Irish  jury,  who  can 
hesitate  to  think  that  the  contriver  of  the  Union  is  treated  with  too 
much  lenity  in  this  sentence;  he  fears  your  disapprobation  for 
speaking  with  so  little  animosity  of  the  artificer  of  the  Union. 

"  There  was  one  piece  of  treachery  committed  at  that  period,  at 
which  both  you  and  I  equally  rejoice  ;  it  was  the  breach  of  faith 
towards  the  leading  Catholics ;  the  written  promises  made  them  at 
that  period  have  been  since  printed  ;  I  rejoice  with  you  that  they 
were  not  fulfilled  ;  when  the  Catholic  trafficked  for  his  own  advan- 
tage upon  his  country's  miseries,  he  deserved  to  be  deceived.  For 
this  mockery,  I  thank  the  CornwaUis  administration.    /  rejoice,  also. 


500  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

that  my  first  introduction  to  the  stage  of  public  life,  teas  in  the 
opposition  to  that  measure. 

"  In  humble  and  obscure  distance,  I  followed  the  footsteps  of  my 
present  adversaries.  What  their  sentiments  were  then  of  the 
authors  of  the  Union,  I  beg  to  read  to  you  ;  I  will  read  them  from 
a  newspaper  set  up  for  the  mere  purpose  of  opposing  the  Union, 
and  conducted  under,  the  control  of  these  gentlemen.  If  their 
editor  should  be  gravely  denied,  I  shall  only  reply — '  oh  cease  your 
funning.'  * 

"  The  charge  of  being  a  Jacobin,  was  at  that  time  made  against 
the  present  Attorney-General — ^him,  plain  William  Saurin — in  the 
very  terms,  and  with  just  as  much  truth  as  he  now  applies  it  to  my 
client.  His  reply  shall  serve  for  that  of  Mr.  Magee.  I  take  it  from 
the  anti-Union  of  the  22nd  March,  1800. 

" '  To  the  charge  of  Jacobin,  Mr.  Saurin  said  he  knew  not  what  it 
meant,  as  applied  to  him,  except  it  ivas  an  opposition  to  the  will  of 
the  British  minister! 

"  So  says  Mr.  Magee  ;  but,  gentlemen,  my  eye  lights  upon  another 
passage  of  Mi-.  Saurin's,  in  the  same  speech  from  which  I  have 
quoted  the  above.     It  was  in  these  words : — 

" '  Mr.  Saurin  admitted,  that  debates  might  sometimes  produce 
agitations,  but  that  was  the  price  necessarily  paid  for  liberty! 

"  Oh,  how  I  thank  this  good  Jew  for  the  word.  Yes,  agitation  is, 
as  Mr.  Saurin  well  remarked,  the  price  necessarily  paid  for  liberty. 
We  have  paid  the  price,  gentlemen,  and  the  honest  man  refuses  to 
give  us  the  goods.     (Much  laughing.) 

"  Now,  gentlemen,  of  this  Mr.  Saurin,  then  an  agitator,  I  beg 
leave  to  read  the  opinion  upon  this  Union,  the  author  of  which  we 
have  only  called  artful  and  treacherous.  From  this  speech  of  the 
13th  March,  1800,  I  select  those  passages  : 

" '  Mr.  Saurin  said  he  felt  it  his  duty  to  the  crown,  to  the  country, 
and  to  his  family,  to  warn  the  minister  of  the  dreadful  consequences 
of  persevering  in  a  measure  which  the  people  of  Ireland  almost 
unanimously  disliked.' 

"  And  again — 

" '  He,  for  one,  would  assert  the  principles  of  the  glorious  revo- 
lution, and  boldly  declare  in  the  face  of  the  nation,  that  Avhen  the 


*  A  pamphlet  iiutTcr  this  title  was  published  by  the  Solieitor-General ;  it  was 
full  of  wit  and  talent. 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  501 

Sovereign  power  dissolved  the  compact  tliat  existed  between  the 
government  and  the  people,  that  moment  the  right  of  resistance 
accrues. 

"  '  Whether  it  would  be  prudent  in  the  people  to  avail  themselves 
of  that  right,  would  be  another  question.  But  if  a  legislative  union 
wex'e  foi'ced  on  the  country,  against  the  will  of  its  inhabitants,  it 
would  be  a  nullity^  and  resistance  to  it  would  be  a  struggle  against 
usurpation,  and  not  a  resistance  against  law.' 

"May  I  be  permitted  just  to  observe,  how  much  more  violent  this 
agitator  of  the  year  1800,  than  we  poor  and  timid  agitators  of  the 
year  1813.  When  did  we  talk  of  resistance  being  a  question  of 
prudence  ?  Shame  upon  the  men  who  call  us  intemperate,  and  yet 
remember  their  own  violence. 

"  But,  gentlemen,  is  the  Attorney- General  at  liberty  to  change 
the  nature  of  things  with  his  own  official  and  professional  prospects  ? 
I  am  ready  to  admit  that  he  receives  thousands  of  pounds  by  the 
year  of  the  public  monies,  in  his  office  of  Attorney-General — thou- 
sands from  the  Crown- Solicitor — thousands,  for  doing  little  work, 
from  the  Custom-house  ;  but  does  all  this  public  booty  with  which 
he  is  loaded,  alter  the  nature  of  things,  or  prevent  that  from  being  a 
deceitful  measure,  brought  about  by  artful  and  treacherous  means, 
against  which  Mr.  Saurin,  in  1800,  preached  the  holy  doctrine  of 
insurrection,  sounded  the  tocsin  of  resistance,  and  summoned  the 
people  of  the  land  to  battle  against  it,  as  against  usurpatio7i  ? 

"In  1800,  he  absolves  the  subjects  from  their  allegiance — if  the 
usurpation,  styled  tlie  Union  will  be  carried — and  he,  this  identical 
agitator,  in  1813,  indicts  a  man,  and  calls  him  a  ruffian,  for  speaking 
of  the  contrivers  of  the  Union,  not  as  usurpers,  but  as  artful,  treach- 
erous men.  Gentlemen,  pity  the  situation  in  which  he  has  placed 
himself;  and  pray,  do  not  think  of  inflicting  punishment  upon  my 
client  for  his  extreme  moderation. 

"  It  has  been  coarsely  urged,  and  it  will,  I  know,  be  urged  in  the 
splendid  misrepresentations  with  which  the  Solicitor-General  can  so 
well  distort  the  argument  he  is  unable  to  meet — it  will,  I  know,  be 
urged  by  him,  that  having  established  the  right  to  use  this  last 
paragraph — having  proved  that  the  predecessors  of  the  Duke  were 
oppressors  and  murderers,  and  profligate,  and  treacherous,  that  the 
libel  is  only  aggravated  thereby,  as  the  first  paragraph  compares  and 
combines  the  Duke  of  Richmond  with  the  worst  of  his  predecessors. 

"  This  is  a  most  fallacious  assertion ;  and  here  it  is  that  I  could 


502  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

wish  I  had  to  address  a  dispassionate  and  an  enlightened  jury.  You 
are  not,  you  know  you  are  not,  of  the  selection  of  my  client.  Had 
he  the  poor  privilege  of  the  sheep-stealer,  there  are,  at  least,  ten  of 
you  who  should  never  have  been  on  his  jury.  But  the  jury  he 
would  select  is  not  such  a  j  ury  in  his  favour,  as  has  been  impanelled 
against  him ;  he  desires  no  favour ;  he  would  desire  only  that  the 
most  respectable  and  unprejudiced  of  your  city  should  be  selected 
for  his  trial ;  his  only  ambition  would  be  perfect  impartiality ; 
he  would  desire,  and  I  should  desire  for  him,  a  jury  whose  verdict 
of  conviction,  if  they  did  convict  him,  would  produce  a  sense  of 
error  and  a  feeling  more  painful  to  his  mind  of  being  wrong  than 
a  star-chamber  sentence. 

*'  If  I  had  to  address  such  a  jury,  how  easily  could  I  show  them 
that  there  is  no  comparison — no  attempt  at  similitude.  On  the 
contrary,  the  object  of  the  writer  is  clearly  to  make  a  contrast. 
Grey  murdered ;  but  he  was  an  able  statesman  ;  his  massacre  was  a 
crime  in  itself,  but  eminently  useful  to  his  employers  ;  it  contributed 
mainly  to  secure  the  forfeiture  of  the  overgrown  territories  of  the 
House  of  Desmond.  Essex  was  a  murderer,  but  his  extreme  of  vice 
was  accompanied  by  great  military  services ;  he  was  principally 
instrumental  in  effectuating  the  conquest  of  Ireland — even  his 
crimes  served  the  cause  of  his  royal  mistress,  and  the  territory  of 
the  slaughtered  O'Nial  became  shire  land ;  he  had  terrific  cruelty 
to  answer  for,  but  he  could  give  it  some  answer  in  the  splendour 
and  solidity  of  his  services.  So  of  Strafford — he  was  an  eminent 
oppressor,  but  he  was  also  eminently  useful  to  his  royal  master. 

'*  As  to  the  Duke  of  Richmond,  the  contrast  is  intended  to  be 
complete — he  has  neither  great  crimes  nor  great  virtues.  He  did  not 
murder,  like  Essex  and  Grey,  but  he  did  not  render  any  splendid 
services.  In  short,  his  administration  has  been  directly  the  reverse 
of  these.  It  has  been  marked  by  errors  and  not  crimes.  It  has  not 
displayed  talents  as  they  did ;  and  it  has  no  striking  features  as  they 
had.  Such  is  the  fair,  the  rational,  and  the  just  construction  which 
a  fail",  rational,  and  just  jury  would  put  upon  it. 

"  Indeed,  the  Attorney-General  seems  to  feel  it  was  necessary  for 
him  to  resort  to  other  topics,  in  order  to  induce  you  to  convict  upon 
this  part  of  the  case.  He  tells  you  that  this  is  the  second  time  that 
the  Duke  of  Richmond  has  been  called  a  murderer.  Gentlemen,  in 
this  indictment  there  is  no  allegation  that  the  Duke  is  styled  a 
murderer  by  this  publication  ;  if  there  had,   he  should  be  readily 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  503 

acquitted,  even  for  the  variance ;  and  when  the  Attorney-General 
resorts  to  Barry's  case,  he  does  it  to  inflame  your  passions,  and 
mislead  your  understandings — and  then  what  has  the  Irish  Magazine 
to  do  with  this  trial  ? 

"  Walter  Cox,  with  his  Irish  Magazine,  is  as  good  a  Protestant  as 
the  king's  Attorney-General,  and  probably  quite  as  sincere  in  the 
profession  of  that  religion,  though  by  no  means  as  much  disposed  to 
persecute  those  who  differ  from  him  in  religious  belief.  Indeed,  if 
he  were  a  persecutor  of  his  countrymen,  he  would  not  be  where  he 
is — in  prison  ;  he  would  probably  enjoy  a  full  share  of  the  public 
plunder,  and  which  is  now  lavished  on  the  stupid  journals  in  the  pay 
of  the  Castle — from  the  versatile,  venal,  and  verbose  correspondent, 
to  the  equally  dull  and  corrupt  Dublin  Journal. 

"  It  is,  however,  not  true,  that  he  is  in  gaol  because  he  published 
what  is  called  a  libel.  The  Attorney- General  talked  with  a  gloating 
pleasure  of  the  miseries  poor  Watty  Cox  endures  in  gaol — 
miseries  that  seem  to  give  poignancy  and  zest  to  the  enjoyments  of 
his  prosecutor.  I  wiU  make  him  happy ;  let  him  return  from  this 
court  to  his  luxuries,  and  when  he  finds  himself  at  his  table,  sur- 
rounded with  every  delicacy,  and  every  profusion,  remember  that  his 
prisoner  Walter  Cox  is  starving.  I  envy  him  not  this  relish,  but  I 
cannot  suffer  him  to  mislead  you.  Cox  is  not  in  gaol  because  he 
published  a  libel ;  he  is  there  because  he  is  poor.  His  time  of 
imprisonment  expired  last  February,  but  he  was  condemned  to  pay  a 
fine  of  £300,  and  having  no  money,  he  has  since  remained  in  gaol. 
It  is  his  poverty,  therefore,  and  not  his  crime,  that  detains  him 
within  the  fangs  of  the  Attorney-General — if,  indeed,  there  be  any 
greater  crime  in  society  than  being  poor. 

"  And,  next,  the  Attorney- General  makes  a  beautiful  eulogium  on 
Magna  Charta.  There  we  agree.  I  should,  indeed,  prefer  seeing 
the  principles  of  that  great  charter  called  into  practical  effect,  to 
hearing  any  palinode,  however  beautiful,  said  or  sung,  on  its  merits. 
But  what  recommendation  can  Magna  Charta  have  for  poor  Cox  ? 
That  charter  of  liberty  expressly  provides,  that  no  man  shall  be  fined 
beyond  what  he  can  pay.  A  very  simple  and  natural  pi'ovision 
against  political  severity.  But  Cox  is  fined  £300,  when  he  is  not 
worth  a  single  shilling.  He  appealed  to  this  court  for  relief,  and 
quotes  Magna  Charta.  Your  lordship  was  not  pleased  to  give  him 
^ny  relief.  He  applies  to  the  Court  of  Exchequer,  and  that  court, 
j^fter  hearing  the  Attorney-General  against  him,  finds  itself  unable 


504  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

to  give  any  relief;  and,  after  all  this,  the  unfortunate  man  is  to  be 
tantalized  with  hearing  that  the  Attorney-General  contrived  to 
couple  his  case  with  the  praise  of  the  great  charter  of  liberty — a  most 
unlucky  coincidence — almost  enough  to  di'ive  him,  in  whose  person 
that  charter  is  violated,  into  a  state  of  insanity. 

"  Poor  "Watty  Cox  is  a  coarse  fellow,  and,  I  think,  he  would  be 
apt  to  reply  to  that  praise  in  the  profane  and  contemptuous  rhyme  of 
Cromwell ;  most  assuredly  he  has  no  reason  to  treat  this  useless  law 
with  great  reverence.  It  would,  indeed,  appear  as  if  the  prosecutor 
eulogized  Magna  Charta  only  to  give  more  brilliancy  to  his  triumph, 
which  he  has  obtained  in  the  person  of  poor  Cox  over  it. 

"  The  next  topic  of  the  Attorney-General's  triumphant  abuse  was 
the  book  entitled,  '  The  Statement  of  the  Penal  Laws.'  He  called  it 
a  convicted  book.  He  exulted  that  the  publisher  was  in  prison ;  he 
traduced  the  author,  and  he  distorted  and  misrepresented  the  spirit 
and  meaning  of  that  book.  As  to  the  publisher,  he  is,  I  admit,  in 
prison.  The  Attorney-General  has  had  the  pleasure  of  tearing  a 
respectable  citizen,  of  irreproachable  character  and  conduct,  from  his 
wife  and  the  little  children  who  were  rendered  comfortable  by  his 
honest,  persevering  industry,  and  he  has  immured  him  in  a  dun- 
geon.    I  only  congratulate  him  on  his  victory. 

"  As  to  the  author,  he  is  just  the  reverse  of  what  the  Attorney- 
General  would  wish  him  to  be  ;  he  is  a  man  of  fortune  ;  he  is  an  able 
lawyer — a  professional  scholar — an  accomplished  gentleman — a  sincere 
friend  to  his  country,  which  he  has  ornamented  and  served.  As  to 
the  book,  it  is  really  ludicrous  to  an  extreme  degree  of  comicality  to 
call  it  a  convicted  book.  There  are  about  400  pages  in  the  work :  it 
contains  an  elaborate,  unexaggerated,  and,  I  think,  softened  detail  of 
the  laws  which  aggrieve  the  Catholics  of  Ireland,  and  of  the  practical 
results  of  those  laws.  Such  a  system,  to  which  the  Attorney-Genei*al 
is  wedded,  as  much  as  to  his  own  emolument,  must  have  excited  no 
small  share  of  irritation  in  his  mind.  It  produced  a  powerful  sensa- 
tion on  the  entire  party  to  which  he  belongs.  Abundant  attempts 
were  made  to  answer  it :  they  were  paid  for  out  of  the  public  money ; 
they  totally  failed,  and  yet  if  the  book  had  been  erroneous,  thei'e 
could  be  nothing  easier  than  its  confutation. 

**  If  that  book  had  been  mistaken  in  matter  of  law,  or  exaggerated 
in  matter  of  fact,  its  refutation  would  have  been  found,  where  we 
have  found  and  proved  its  perfect  accuracy,  in  the  statute  book  and 
in  the  daily  experience  of  eveiy  individual  in  Ireland.     Truth,  you 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  505 

are  told  by  the  prosecutor,  is  no  defence  in  case  of  libel ;  but  cer- 
tainly this  book  was  much  the  more  provoking  for  being  true ;  and 
yet,  gentlemen,  with  the  most  powerful  incentives  to  prosecute  this 
book,  the  Attorney-General  has  been  compelled,  most  reluctantly,  to 
space  every  word  of  the  400  pages  of  text  and  margin,  and  has  been 
unable  to  find  any  pretext  for  an  indictment,  save  in  a  paltry  note 
containing  eight  lines  and  a  half,  and  three  marks  of  admiration. 

"  My  lord,  I  address  your  lordship  particularly  on  the  three  notes 
of  admiration,  because  they  formed  a  prominent  ground  in  your  lord- 
ship's learned  argument,  when  you  decided  that  the  passage  was  a 
libel  per  se.  Yes,  gentlemen,  admire  again,  I  pray  you,  the  solidity 
and  brilliancy  of  our  law,  in  which  three  marks  of  admiration  are  of 
wonderful  efficacy  in  sending  a  man  to  prison.  But  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  note  of  eight  and  a  half  lines,  the  book  has  borne  the 
severest  criticism  of  fact  and  of  law.  It  has  defied,  and  continues  to 
defy,  the  present  Attorney-General  and  his  well-assorted  juries  ;  and, 
as  to  the  note  which  he  indicted,  it  contained  only  a  I'emark  on  the 
execution  of  a  man  who,  whether  innocent  or  guilty,  was  tried  in 
such  a  manner,  that  a  gentleman  of  the  Irish  bar,  his  counsel,  threw 
up  his  brief  in  disgust ;  and  when  the  judge  who  presided  at  the  ti*ial 
ordered  the  counsel  to  remain  and  defend  Barry,  that  counsel  swore, 
in  this  court,  that  he  rejected  the  judge's  mandate  with  contempt. 

"  What  a  mighty  triumph  was  the  conviction  proved  against  this 
note  on  Barry's  case  !  And  may  one  be  permitted  mournfully  to 
ask,  whether  the  indignation,  which  might  have  produced  indiscretion 
in  speaking  of  Barry's  fate,  was  a  very  culpable  quality  in  a  feeling 
mind,  prone  to  detest  the  horrors  with  which  human  blood  is  some- 
times shed  under  the  forms  and  mockery  of  trial  ?  But  that  convic- 
tion, although  it  will  erase  the  note,  will  not  stay  the  demand  which 
an  intelligent  public  make  for  this  valuable  work.  Already  have 
two  valuable  editions  of  it  been  sold,  and  a  third  edition  is  loudly 
called  for,  and  about  to  appear. 

"  What,  in  the  meantime,  has  been  the  fate  of  the  answers  ?  I  see 
two  booksellers  amongst  you  ;  they  will  tell  you  that  the  answers  are 
recollected  only  by  the  loss  they  have  produced  to  them,  and  by  the 
cumbering  of  their  shelves.  Such  is  the  result  of  the  loyal  triumph 
of  his  Grace  the  Duke  of  Richmond's  administration.  May  such  in 
every  age  be  the  fruits  of  every  prosecutor  of  free  discussion,  and  of 
the  assertion  of  political  truth  ! 

"  I  have  followed  the  Attorney- General  through  his  discussion 


506  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

upon  Walter  Cox  and  '  The  Statement  of  the  Penal  Laws,'  without 
being  able  exactly  to  conjecture  his  motives  for  introducing  them. 
As  to  Cox,  it  appears  to  be  the  mere  gratification  of  his  delight  at 
the  misery  to  which  that  unfortunate  man  is  reduced.  As  to  '  the 
book,'  I  can  only  conjecture  that  his  wish  is  to  insinuate  to  you  that 
the  author  of  '  the  book'  and  of  this  publication  is  the  same.  If  that 
were  his  design,  it  may  be  enough  to  say,  that  he  has  not  proved  the 
fact,  and,  therefore,  in  fairness,  it  ought  not  at  all  to  influence  your 
decision.  I  go  further  and  tell  him,  that  the  fact  is  not  so  ;  that  the 
author  is  a  different  person  ;  that  the  writer  of  this  alleged  libel  is  a 
Protestant — a  man  of  fortune — a  man  of  that  rank  and  estimation 
that  even  the  Attorney-General,  were  I  to  announce  his  name,  which 
my  client  will  never  do,  or  suffer  his  advocate  to  do,  that  name  would 
extort  respect,  even  from  the  Attorney-General  himself. 

"  He  has,  in  his  usual  fashion,  calumniated  the  spmt  and  object  of 
'  the  Statement  of  the  Penal  Laws.'  He  says  it  imputes  murder  and 
every  other  crime  to  persons  in  high  stations,  as  resulting  from  their 
being  Protestants.  He  says  that  it  attributes  to  the  Lord  Lieu- 
tenant the  committing  murder  on  a  Catholic,  because  he  himself  is  a 
Protestant.  Gentlemen,  I  wish  you  had  read  that  book  ;  if  you  did, 
it  would  be  quite  unnecessary  for  me  to  contradict  those  assertions 
of  the  Attorney-General.  In  fact,  there  never  were  assertions  more 
unfounded ;  that  book  contains  nothing  that  could  warrant  his 
description  of  it ;  on  the  contrary,  the  book  seeks  to  establish  this 
position,  that  the  grievances  which  the  Irish  Catholics  suffer,  are  not 
attributable  to  the  Protestant  religion — that  they  are  repugnant  to 
the  spirit  of  that  religion,  and  are  attributable,  simply  and  singly,  to 
the  spirit  of  monopoly,  and  tone  of  superiority,  generated  and 
fostered  by  the  system  of  exclusion,  upon  which  the  Penal  Code 
rests. 

"  The  author  of  that  book  is  confessedly  a  Catholic  ;  yet  the  book 
states,  and  the  Attorney-General  heard  the  passage  twice  read  in  this 
court,  that  '  if  Roman  Catholics  were  placed,  by  unjust  laws,  in  the 
situation  in  which  the  Irish  Protestants  now  are  placed,  they  would 
oppress  and  exclude  precisely  as  the  Protestants  now  do.'  In  short, 
his  statement  and  reasonings  are  founded  on  this,  that  it  is  unjust 
to  give  any  religion  exclusive  political  advantages  ;  because,  what- 
ever that  religion  may  be,  the  result  will  necessarily  prove  oppres- 
sive and  insulting  towards  the  less  favoured  sect.  He  argues  not 
ekclusively  against  any  particular  religion,  but  from  natural  causes 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  507 

operating  on  human  beings.  His  book  may  be  a  libel  on  human 
nature,  but  it  is  no  more  a  libel  on  the  Protestant  than  on  the 
Catholic  religion.  It  draws  no  other  inference  than  this,  that  Ca- 
tholics and  Protestants,  under  similar  circumstances,  would  act 
precisely  in  the  same  way. 

"  Having  followed  the  prosecutor  through  this  weary  digression,  I 
return  to  the  next  sentence  of  this  publication.  Yet  I  cannot — I 
must  detain  you  still  a  little  longer  from  it,  whilst  I  supplicate  your 
honest  indignation,  if  in  your  resentments  there  be  ought  of  honesty, 
against  the  mode  in  which  the  Attorney-General  has  introduced  the 
name  of  our  aged  and  afflicted  sovereign.  He  says,  this  is  a  libel 
on  the  king,  because  it  imputes  to  him  a  selection  of  improper  and 
criminal  chief  governors.  Gentlemen,  this  is  the  very  acme  of 
servile  doctrine.  It  is  the  most  unconstitutional  doctrine  that  could 
be  uttered :  it  supposes  that  the  sovereign  is  responsible  for  the  acts 
of  his  servants,  whilst  the  constitution  declares  that  the  king  can  do 
no  wrong,  and  that  even  for  his  personal  acts,  his  servants  shall  be 
personally  responsible.  Thus,  the  Attorney-General  reverses  for 
you  the  constitution  in  theory ;  and,  in  point  of  fact,  where  can  be 
found,  in  this  publication,  any,  even  the  slightest  allusion,  to  his 
Majesty.  The  theory  is  against  the  Attorney- General,  and  yet, 
contrary  to  the  fact,  and  against  the  theory,  he  seeks  to  enlist  another 
prejudice  of  yours  against  Mr.  Magee. 

"Prejudice  did  I  call  it?  oh,  no!  it  is  no  prejudice;  that  sen- 
timent which  combines  respect  with  affection  for  my  aged  sovereign, 
suffering  under  a  calamity  with  which  heaven  has  willed  to  visit 
him,  but  which  is  not  due  to  any  default  of  his.  There  never 
was  a  sentiment  that  I  should  wish  to  see  more  cherished — more 
honoured.  To  you  the  king  may  appear  an  object  of  respect ;  to 
his  Catholic  subjects  he  is  one  of  veneration  ;  to  them  he  has  been 
a  bountiful  benefactor.  To  the  utter  disregard  of  your  aldermen  of 
Skinner's-alley,  and  the  more  pompous  magnets  of  William-street, 
his  Majesty  procured,  at  his  earnest  solicitation  from  parliament,  the 
restoration  of  much  of  our  liberties.  He  disregarded  your  anti- 
Popery  petitions.  He  treated,  with  calm  indifference,  the  ebullitions 
of  your  bigotry  ;  and  I  owe  to  him  that  I  have  the  honour  of  standing 
in  the  proud  situation  from  which  I  am  able,  if  not  to  protect  my 
client,  at  least  to  pour  the  indignant  torrent  of  my  discourse  against 
his  enemies,  and  those  of  his  country. 

"  The  publication  to  which  I  now  recall  yon,  goes  to  describe  the 


508  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

effects  of  the  facts  which  I  have  shown  you  to  have  been  di'awn 
from  the  undisputed  and  authentic  history  of  former  times.  I  have, 
I  hope,  convinced  you,  that  neither  Leland  nor  Hume  could  have 
been  indicted  for  stating  those  facts,  and  it  would  be  a  very  strange 
perversion  of  principle,  which  would  allow  you  to  convict  Mr. 
Magee  for  that  which  has  been  stated  by  other  writers,  not  only 
without  punishment,  but  with  applause. 

"  That  part  of  the  paragraph  which  relates  to  the  present  day  is  in 
these  words  : — 

"  '  Since  that  period  the  complexion  of  the  times  has  changed — 
the  country  has  advanced — it  has  outgrown  submission,  and  some 
forms,  at  least,  must  now  be  observed  towards  the  people. 

"  *  The  system,  however,  is  still  the  same  ;  it  is  the  old  play  with 
new  decorations,  presented  in  an  age  somewhat  more  enlightened ; 
the  principle  of  government  remains  unaltered — a  principle  of  ex- 
clusion which  debars  the  majority  of  the  people  from  the  enjoyment 
of  those  privileges  that  are  possessed  by  the  minority,  and  which 
must,  therefore,  maintain  itself  by  all  those  measures  necessary  for  a 
government  founded  on  injustice.' 

"  The  prosecutor  insists  that  this  is  the  most  libellous  part  of 
the  entire  publication.  I  am  glad  he  does  so ;  because  if  there  be 
amongst  you  a  single  particle  of  discrimination,  you  cannot  fail  to 
perceive  that  this  is  not  a  libel — that  this  paragraph  cannot  constitute 
any  crime.  It  states  that  the  present  is  a  system  of  exclusion. 
Surely,  it  is  no  crime  to  say  so  ;  it  is  what  you  all  say.  It  is  what 
the  Attorney- General  himself  gloried  in.  This  is,  said  he,  ex- 
clusively a  Protestant  government.  Mr.  Magee  and  he  are  agreed. 
Mr.  Magee  adds,  that  a  principle  of  exclusion,  on  account  of  religion, 
is  founded  on  injustice.  Gentlemen,  if  a  Protestant  were  to  be 
excluded  from  any  temporal  advantages  upon  the  score  of  his 
religion,  would  not  you  say  that  the  principle  upon  which  he  was 
excluded  was  unjust?  That  is  precisely  what  Mr.  Magee  says  ;  for 
f,he  principle  which  excludes  the  Catholic  in  Ireland,  would  exclude 
the  Protestant  in  Spain  and  in  Portugal,  and  then  you  clearly  admit 
its  justice.  So  that,  really,  you  would  condemn  yourselves,  and 
your  own  opinions,  and  the  right  to  be  a  Protestant  in  Spain  and 
Portugal,  if  you  condemn  this  sentiment. 

"  But  I  would  have  you  further  observe  that  this  is  no  more  than 
the  discussion  of  an  abstract  principle  of  government ;  it  arraigns 
not  the  conduct  of  any  individual,  or  of  any  administration  ;  it  only 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,  M.P.  509 

discusses  and  decides  upon  the  moral  fitness  of  a  certain  theory,  on 
which  the  management  of  the  affairs  of  Ireland  has  been  conducted. 
If  this  be  a  crime,  we  are  all  criminals  ;  for  this  question,  whether 
it  be  just  or  not  to  exclude  from  power  and  office  a  class  of  the 
people  for  religion,  is  the  subject  of  daily — of  hourly  discussion. 
The  Attorney-General  says  it  is  quite  just;  I  proclaim  it  to  be 
unjust — obviously  unjust.  At  all  public  meetings,  in  all  private 
companies,  this  point  is  decided  different  ways,  according  to  he 
temper  and  the  interest  of  individuals.  Indeed,  it  is  but  too  much 
the  topic  of  every  man's  discourse;  and  the  gaols  and  the  barracks  of 
the  country  would  not  contain  the  hundreth  part  of  those  whom  the 
Attorney-General  would  have  to  crowd  them,  if  it  be  penal  to  call 
the  principle  of  exclusion  unjust.  In  this  court,  without  the  least 
danger  of  interruption  or  reproof,  I  proclaim  the  injustice  of  that 
principle. 

"  I  will  then  ask  whether  it  be  lawful  to  print  that  which  it  is  not 
unlawful  to  proclaim  in  the  face  of  a  court  of  justice  ?  And,  above 
all,  I  will  ask  whether  it  can  be  criminal  to  discuss  the  abstract  prin- 
ciples of  government  ?  Is  the  theory  of  the  law  a  prohibited  sub- 
ject ?  I  had  understood  that  there  was  no  right  so  clear  and 
undoubted  as  that  of  discussing  abstract  and  theoretic  principles,  and 
their  applicability  to  practical  purposes.  For  the  first  time  do  I 
hear  this  disputed  ;  and  now  see  what  it  is  the  Attorney-General 
prohibits.  He  insists  upon  punishing  Mr.  Magee  ;  first,  because  he 
accuses  his  administration  of  '  errors' ;  secondly,  because  he  charges 
them  with  not  being  distinguished  for  '  talents' ;  thii'dly,  because  he 
cannot  discover  their  '  striking  features' ;  and,  fourthly,  because  he 
discusses  an  '  abstract  principle  !' 

"  This  is  quite  intelligible — this  is  quite  tangible.  I  begin  to 
understand  what  the  Attorney-General  means  by  the  liberty  of  the 
Press  ;  it  means  a  prohibition  of  printing  anything  except  praise, 
respecting  '  the  errors,  the  talents,  or  the  striking  features'  of  any 
administration,  and  of  discussing  any  abstract  principles  of  govern- 
ment. Thus  the  forbidden  subjects  are  errors,  talents,  striking  fea- 
tures, and  principles.  Neither  the  theory  of  the  government  nor  its 
practices  are  to  be  discussed  ;  you  may,  indeed,  praise  them ;  you 
may  call  the  Attorney- General  'the  best  and  wisest  of  men  ;'  you 
may  call  his  lordship  the  most  learned  and  impartial  of  all  possible 
chief  justices ;  you  may,  if  you  have  powers  of  visage  sufficient,  call 
the  Lord  Lieutenant  the  best  of  all  imaginable  governors.     That, 


510  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

gentlemen,  is  the  boasted  liberty  of  the  Press — the  liberty  that 
exists  in  Constantinople — the  liberty  of  applying  the  most  fulsome 
and  unfounded  flattery,  but  not  one  word  of  censure  or  reproof. 

"  Here  is  an  idol  worthy  of  the  veneration  of  the  Attorney- 
General.  Yes ;  he  talked  of  his  veneration  for  the  liberty  of  the 
Press ;  he  also  talked  of  its  being  a  protection  to  the  people  against 
the  government.  Protection  !  not  against  errors — not  against  the 
want  of  talents  or  striking  features — nor  against  the  effort  of  any 
unjust  principle — protection  !  against  what  is  it  to  protect  ?  Did  he 
not  mock  you  ?  Did  he  not  plainly  and  palpably  delude  you,  when 
he  talked  of  the  protection  of  the  Press  ?  Yes.  To  his  inconsistencies 
and  contradictions  he  calls  on  you  to  sacrifice  your  consciences  ;  and 
because  you  are  no-Popery  men,  and  distributors  of  Bibles,  and 
aldermen  of  Skinner's -alley,  and  Protestant  petitioners,  he  requires 
of  you  to  brand  your  souls  with  perjury.  You  cannot  escape  it;  it 
is,  it  must  be  perjury  to  find  a  verdict  for  a  man  who  gravely  admits 
that  the  liberty  of  the  Press  is  recognised  by  the  law,  and  that  it  is  a 
venerable  object,  and  yet  calls  for  your  verdict  upon  the  ground  that 
there  is  no  such  thing  in  existence  as  that  which  he  has  admitted, 
that  the  law  recognises,  and  that  he  himself  venerates. 

"  Clinging  to  the  fond  but  faint  hope  that  you  are  not  capable 
of  sanctioning,  by  your  oaths,  so  monstrous  an  inconsistency, 

"  I  lead  you  to  the  next  sentence  upon  this  record. 

" '  Although  his  grace  does  not  appear  to  know  what  are  the 
qualities  necessary  for  a  judge  in  Canada,  or  for  an  aid-de-camp  in 
waiting  at  a  court,  he  surely  cannot  be  ignorant  what  are  requisites 
for  a  lord  lieutenant.' 

"  This  appears  to  be  a  very  innocent  sentence  ;  yet  the  Attorney- 
General,  the  venerator  of  that  protection  of  the  people  against  a  bad 
government — the  liberty  of  the  Press — tells  you  that  it  is  a  gross  libel 
to  impute  so  much  ignorance  to  his  grace.  As  to  the  aid-de-camp, 
gentlemen,  whether  he  be  selected  for  the  brilliancy  of  his  spurs, 
the  polish  of  his  boots,  or  the  precise  angle  of  his  cocked  hat,  are 
grave  considerations  which  I  refer  to  you.  Decide  upon  these 
atrocities  I  pray  you.  But  as  to  the  judge  in  Canada,  it  cannot  be 
any  reproach  to  his  grace  to  be  ignorant  of  his  qualifications.  The 
old  French  law  prevails  in  Canada,  and  there  is  not  a  lawyer  at  the 
Irish  bar,  except,  perhaps,  the  Attorney- General,  who  is  sufficiently 
acquainted  with  that  law  to  know  how  far  any  man  may  be  fit  for 
the  station  of  judge  in  Canada. 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ,,    M.P.  511 

"  If  this  be  an  ignorance  without  reproach  in  Irish  lawyers,  and  if 
there  be  any  reproach  in  it,  I  feel  it  not,  whilst  I  avow  that  igno- 
rance— yet,  surely  it  is  absurd  to  torture  it  into  a  calumny  against 
the  Lord  Lieutenant — a  military  man,  and  no  lawyer.  I  doubt 
whether  it  would  be  a  libel  if  my  client  had  said,  that  his  grace  was 
ignorant  of  the  qualities  necessary  for  a  judge  in  Ireland — for  a 
chief  judge,  my  lord.  He  has  not  said  so,  however,  gentlemen,  and 
true  or  false,  that  is  not  now  the  question  under  consideration.  We  are 
in  Canada  at  present,  gentlemen,  in  a  ludicrous  search  for  a  libel  in  a 
sentence  of  no  great  point  or  meaning.  If  you  are  sapient  enough  to 
suspect  that  it  contains  a  libel,  your  doubt  can  only  arise  from  not 
comprehending  it ;  and  that,  I  own,  is  a  doubt  difficult  to  remove. 
But  I  mock  you  when  I  talk  of  this  insignificant  sentence. 

"  I  shall  read  the  next  paragraph  at  full  length.  It  is  connected 
with  the  Canadian  sentence  : — 

" '  Therefore,  were  an  appeal  to  be  made  to  him  in  a  dispassionate 
and  sober  moment,  we  might  candidly  confess  that  the  Irish  would 
not  be  disappointed  in  their  hopes  of  a  successor,  though  they  would 
behold  the  same  smiles,  experience  the  same  sincerity,  and  witness 
the  same  disposition  towards  conciliation. 

"  '  What,  though  they  were  deceived  in  1795,  and  found  the  mild- 
ness of  a  Fitzwilliam  a  false  omen  of  concord  ;  though  they  were 
duped  in  1 800,  and  found  that  the  privileges  of  the  Catholics  did  not 
follow  the  extinction  of  the  parliament,  yet,  at  his  departure,  he  will, 
no  doubt,  state  good  grounds  for  future  expectation  ;  that  his  ad- 
ministration Avas  not  the  time  for  Emancipation,  but  that  the  season 
is  fast  approaching  ;  that  there  were  '  existing  circumstances,  but 
that  now  the  people  may  rely  upon  the  virtues  even  of  an  hereditary 
Prince  ;  that  they  should  continue  to  worship  the  false  idol ;  that 
their  cries,  must,  at  least,  be  heard  ;  and  that,  if  he  has  not  complied, 
it  is  only  because  he  has  not  spoken.  In  short,  his  grace  will  in  no 
way  vary  from  the  uniform  conduct  observed  by  most  of  his  prede- 
cessors, first  preaching  to  the  confidence  of  the  people,  then  playing 
upon  their  credulity. 

"  'He  came  over  ignorant — he  soon  became  prejudiced,  and  then 
he  became  intemperate.  He  takes  from  the  people  their  money ;  he  eats 
of  their  bread,  and  drinks  of  their  wine ;  in  return,  he  gives  them  a 
bad  government,  and,  at  his  departure,  leaves  them  more  distracted 
than  evei'.      His  grace  commenced  his   reign  by  flattery,  he  con- 


512  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

tinued  it  in  folly,  he  accompanied  it  with  violence,  and  he  will  con- 
clude it  with  falsehood.' 

"  There  is  one  part  of  this  sentence,  for  which  I  most  respectfully 
solicit  your  indulgence  and  pardon.  Be  not  exasperated  with  us  for 
talking  of  the  mildness  of  Lord  Fitzwilliam,  or  of  his  administration. 
But,  notwithstanding  the  violence  any  praise  of  him  has  excited 
amongst  you,  come  dispassionately,  I  pray  you,  to  the  consideration 
of  the  paragraph.  Let  us  abstract  the  meaning  of  it  from  the  super- 
fluous words.  It  certainly  does  tell  you,  that  his  grace  came  over 
ignorant  of  Irish  affairs,  and  he  acquired  prejudices  upon  those 
subjects,  and  he  has  become  intemperate.  Let  us  discuss  this  part 
separately  from  the  other  matter  suggested  by  the  paragraph  in 
question.  That  the  Duke  of  Richmond  came  over  to  Ireland  ignorant 
of  the  details  of  our  domestic  policy  cannot  be  matter  either  of  sui"- 
prise  or  of  any  reproach.  A  military  man  engaged  in  these  pui-suits, 
which  otherwise  occupy  persons  of  his  rank  altogether  unconnected 
with  Ireland,  he  could  not  have  had  any  inducement  to  make  himself 
acquainted  with  the  details  of  our  barbarous  wrongs,  of  our  senseless 
party  quarrels,  and  criminal  feuds ;  he  was  not  stimulated  to  examine 
them  by  any  interest,  nor  could  any  man  be  attracted  to  study  them 
by  taste.  It  is,  therefore,  no  censure  to  talk  of  his  ignorance — of 
that  with  which  it  would  be  absurd  to  expect  that  he  should  be 
acquainted  ;  and  the  knowledge  of  which  would  neither  have  served, 
nor  exalted,  nor  amused  him. 

"  Then,  gentlemen,  it  is  said  he  became  '  prejudiced.'  Prejudiced 
may  sound  harsh  in  your  ears ;  but  you  are  not,  at  least  you  ought 
not,  to  decide  upon  the  sound — it  is  the  sense  of  the  word  that  should 
determine  you.  Now  what  is  the  sense  of  the  word  '  prejudice'  here  ? 
It  means  the  having  adopted  precisely  the  opinions  which  every  one 
of  you  entertain.  By  '  prejudice'  the  writer  means,  and  can  mean, 
nothing  but  such  sentiments  as  you  cherish.  "VVlien  he  talks  of  pi'e- 
judice,  he  intends  to  convey  the  idea  that  the  Duke  took  up  the 
opinion,  that  the  few  ought  to  govern  the  many  in  Ireland  ;  that 
there  ought  to  be  a  favoured,  and  an  excluded  class  in  Ireland ;  that 
the  burdens  of  the  state  ought  to  be  shared  equally,  but  its  benefits 
conferred  on  a  few.  Such  are  the  ideas  conveyed  by  the  word 
prejudice ;  and  I  fearlessly  ask  you,  is  it  a  crime  to  impute  to  his 
grace  these  notions  which  you  yourselves  entertain  ?  Is  he  calum- 
niated— is  he  libelled,  when  he  is  charged  with  concurring  with  you, 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  513 

gentlemen  of  the  jury  ?  Will  you,  by  a  verdict  of  conviction,  stamp 
your  own  political  sentiments  with  the  seal  of  reprobation  ?  If  you 
convict  my  client,  you  do  this  ;  you  decide  that  it  is  a  libel  to  charge 
any  man  with  those  doctrines  which  are  so  useful  to  you  individually, 
and  of  which  you  boast ;  or,  you  think  the  opinions  just,  and  yet  that 
it  is  criminal  to  chai'ge  a  man  with  those  just  opinions.  For  the 
sake,  therefore,  of  consistency,  and  as  an  approval  of  your  own 
opinions,  I  call  on  you  for  a  verdict  of  acquittal. 

"  I  need  not  detain  you  long  on  the  expression  '  intemperate  ;'  it 
does  not  mean  any  charge  of  excess  of  indulgence  in  any  enjoyment; 
it  is  not,  as  the  Attorney- General  suggested,  an  accusation  of  indulg- 
ing beyond  due  bounds  in  the  pleasures  of  the  table,  or  of  the  bottle ; 
it  does  not  allude,  as  the  Attorney- General  says,  to  midnight  orgies, 
or  to  morning  revels.  I  admit — I  fi'eely  admit — that  an  allusion  of 
that  kind  would  savour  of  libel,  as  it  would  certainly  be  unnecessary 
for  any  purpose  of  political  discussion.  But  the  intemperance  here 
spoken  of  is  mere  political  intemperance  ;  it  is  that  violence  which 
every  man-  of  a  fervid  disposition  feels  in  support  of  his  political 
opinions.  Nay,  the  more  pure  and  honest  any  man  may  be  in  the 
adoption  of  his  opinions,  the  more  likely  and  the  more  justifiable  will 
he  be  in  that  ardent  support  of  them,  which  goes  by  the  name  of 
intemperance.  In  short,  although  political  intemperance  cannot  be 
deemed  by  cold  calculators  as  a  virtue,  yet  it  has  its  source  in  the 
purest  virtues  of  the  human  heart,  and  it  frequently  produces  the 
gi'eatest  advantages  to  the  public.  How  would  it  be  possible  to 
overcome  the  many  obstacles  which  self-interest,  and  ignorance,  and 
passion  throw  in  the  way  of  improvement,  without  some  of  that  ardour 
of  temper  and  disposition  which  grave  men  call  intemperance  ?  And, 
gentlemen^  are  not  your  opinions  as  deserving  of  warm  support  as  the 
opinion  of  other  men ;  or  do  you  feel  any  inherent  depravity  in  the 
political  sentiments  which  the  Duke  of  Richmond  has  adopted  from 
you  that  would  render  him  depraved  or  degraded  by  any  violence  in 
their  support  ?  You  have  no  alternative.  If  you  convict  my  client, 
you  condemn,  upon  your  oaths,  your  own  political  creed ;  and  declare 
it  to  be  a  libel  to  charge  any  man  with  energy  in  your  cause, 

"  If  you  are  not  disposed  to  go  this  length  of  political  inconsistency, 
and  if  you  have  determined  to  avoid  the  religious  inconsistency  of 
perjuring  yourselves  for  the  good  and  glory  of  the  Protestant  reli- 
gion, do,   I  pray  you,  examine  the  rest  of  this   paragraph,  and  see 

2   L 


514  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

whether  you  can,  by  any  ingenuity,  detect  that  nondescript  a  libel  in 
it.  It  states  in  substance  this  :  that  this  administration,  treading  in 
the  steps  of  former  administrations,  preached  to  the  confidence  of  the 
people,  and  played  on  their  credulity;  and  tliat  it  will  end,  as  those 
administrations  have  done,  in  some  flattering  prophecy,  paying  present 
disappointment  with  the  coinage  of  delusive  hope.  That  this  ad- 
ministration commenced,  as  usual,  with  preaching  to  the  confidence 
of  the  people,  was  neither  criminal  in  the  fact,  nor  can  it  be  unplea- 
sant in  the  recital. 

"It  is  the  immemorial  usage  of  all  administrations  and  of  all 
stations,  to  commence  with  those  civil  professions  of  future  excellence 
of  conduct  which  are  called,  and  not  unaptly,  '^ preaching  to  the  con- 
fidence of  the  people  J  The  very  actors  are  generally  sincere  at  this 
stage  of  the  political  farce ;  and  it  is  not  insinuated  that  this  ad- 
ministration was  not  as  candid  on  this  subject  as  the  best  of  its 
predecessors.  The  playing  on  the  credulity  of  the  people  is  the 
ordinary  state  trick.  You  recollect  how  angry  many  of  you  were 
with  his  Grace  for  his  Munster  tour,  shortly  after  his  arrival  here. 
You  recollect  how  he  checked  the  Mayor  of  Cork  for  proposing  the 
new  favourite  Orange  toast ;  what  liberality  he  displayed  to  popish 
traders  and  bankers  in  Limerick ;  and  how  he  returned  to  the 
capital,  leaving  behind  him  the  impression  that  the  no-Popery  men 
had  been  mistaken  in  their  choice,  and  that  the  Duke  of  Richmond 
was  the  enemy  of  every  bigotry — the  friend  to  every  liberality!  Was  he 
sincere,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  or  was  this  one  of  those  innocent 
devices  which  are  called — playing  on  the  people's  credulity  ?  Was 
he  sincere  ?  Ask  his  subsequent  conduct.  Have  there  been  since 
that  time  any  other  or  diiFerent  toasts  cheered  in  his  presence  ? 
Has  the  name  of  Ireland  and  of  Irishmen  been  profaned  by  becom- 
ing the  sport  of  the  warmth  excited  by  the  accompaniment  to  these 
toasts  ?  Some  individuals  of  you  could  inform  me.  I  see  another 
dignitary  of  your  corporation  here  (said  Mr.  O'Connell,  turning 
round  pointedly  to  the  lord  mayor) — I  see  a  civic  dignitary  here, 
who  could  tell  of  the  toasts  of  these  days  or  nights,  and  would  not 
be  at  a  loss  to  apply  the  right  name — if  he  were  not  too  prudent  as 
well  as  too  polite  to  do  so — to  that  innocent  affectation  of  liberality 
which  distinguished  his  grace's  visit  to  the  south  of  Ireland.  It  was, 
indeed,  a  play  upon  our  credulity,  but  it  can  be  no  libel  to  speak  of  it 
as  such  ;  for  see  the  situation  in  which  you  would  place  his  grace ; 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  515 

you  know  he  affected  conciliation  and  perfect  neutrality  between  otir 
parties  at  first ;  you  know  he  has  since  taken  a  marked  and  decided 
part  with  you. 

"  Surely  you  are  not  disposed  to  call  this  a  crime,  as  it  were,  to 
convict  his  grace  of  duplicity,  and  of  a  vile  hypocrisy.  No,  gentle- 
men, I  entreat  of  you  not  to  calumniate  the  Duke  ;  call  this  conduct 
a  mere  play  on  the  credulity  of  a  people  easily  deceived — innocent 
in  its  intention,  and  equally  void  of  guilt  in  its  description.  Do  not 
attach  to  those  words  a  meaning  which  would  prove  that  you 
yourselves  condemned,  not  so  much  the  writer  of  them,  as  the  man 
who  gave  colour  and  countenance  to  this  assertion.  Besides,  gentle- 
men, what  is  your  liberty  of  the  Press  worth,  if  it  be  worthy  of  a 
dungeon  to  assert  that  the  public  credulity  has  been  played  upon  ? 
The  liberty  of  the  Press  would  be  less  than  a  dream,  a  shadow,  if 
every  such  phrase  be  a  libel. 

"But  the  Attorney-General  triumphantly  tells  you  that  there 
must  be  a  libel  in  this  paragraph,  because  it  ends  with  a  charge  of 
falsehood.  May  I  ask  you  to  take  the  entire  paragraph  together  ? 
Common  sense  and  your  duty  require  you  to  do  so.  You  will  then 
perceive  that  this  charge  of  falsehood  is  no  more  than  an  opinion, 
that  the  administration  of  the  Duke  of  Richmond  will  terminate 
precisely  as  that  of  many  of  his  predecessors  has  done,  by  an  excuse 
for  the  past — a  flattering  and  fallacious  promise  for  the  future. 
Why,  you  must  all  of  you  have  seen,  a  short  time  since,  an  account 
of  a  public  dinner  in  London,  given  by  persons  styling  themselves 
'  Friends  to  Religious  Liberty.'  At  that  dinner,  at  which  two  of 
the  Royal  Dukes  attended,  there  were,  I  think,  no  less  than  four  or 
five  noblemen  who  had  filled  the  office  of  lord  lieutenant  of  Ireland. 
Gentlemen,  at  this  dinner,  they  were  ai'dent  in  their  professions  of 
kindness  towards  the  Catholics  of  Ireland,  in  their  declarations  of 
the  obvious  policy  and  justice  of  conciliation  and  concession,  and 
they  bore  ample  testimony  to  our  sufferings  and  our  merits.  But  I 
appeal  from  their  present  declarations  to  their  past  conduct ;  they 
are  now  full  of  liberality  and  justice  to  us ;  yet,  I  speak  only  the 
truth  of  history,  when  I  say  that,  during  their  government  of  this 
country,  no  practical  benefits  resulted  from  all  this  wisdom  and 
kindness  of  sentiment;  with  the  single  exception  of  Lord  Fitzwilliam, 
not  one  of  them  even  attempted  to  do  any  good  to  the  Catholics,  or 
to  Ireland. 

"What    did    the   Duke    of    Bedford    do    for    us?     Just   nothivg. 


51G  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

Some  civility,  indeed,  in  words — some  playing  on  public  credulity — 
but  in  act  and  deed,  nothing  at  all.  What  did  Lord  Hardwicke  do 
for  us  ?  Oh,  nothing,  or  rather  less  than  nothing ;  his  administration 
here  was,  in  that  respect,  a  kind  of  negative  quality  ;  it  was  cold, 
harsh,  and  forbidding  to  the  Catholics — lenient,  mild,  and  encourag- 
ing to  the  Orange  faction  ;  the  public  mind  lay  in  the  first  torpor 
caused  by  the  mighty  fall  of  the  union,  and  whilst  we  lay  entranced 
in  the  oblivious  pool.  Lord  Hardwicke's  administration  proceeded 
without  a  trace  of  that  justice  and  liberality  which  it  appears  he 
must  have  thought  unbefitting  the  season  of  his  government,  and 
which  if  he  then  entertained,  he  certainly  concealed  ;  he  ended, 
however,  with  giving  us  flattering  hopes  for  the  future.  The  Duke 
of  Bedford  was  more  explicit ;  he  promised  in  direct  terms,  and  drew 
upon  the  future  exertions  of  an  hereditary  Prince,  to  compensate 
us  for  present  disappointment.  And  will  any  man  assert  that  the 
Duke  of  Richmond  is  libelled  by  a  comparison  with  Lord  Hardwicke, 
that  he  is  traduced  when  he  is  compared  with  the  Duke  of  Bedford  ? 
If  the  words  actually  were  these,  '  the  Duke  of  Richmond  will  ter- 
minate his  administration  exactly  as  Lord  Hardwicke  and  the  Duke 
of  Bedford  terminated  their  administrations  ;'  if  those  were  the 
words,  none  of  you  could  possibly  vote  for  a  conviction,  and  yet  the 
meaning  is  precisely  the  same.  No  more  is  expressed  by  the 
language  of  my  client ;  and,  if  the  meaning  be  thus  clearly  innocent* 
it  would  be  strange,  indeed,  to  call  on  you  for  a  verdict  of  conviction 
upon  no  more  solid  gi'ound  than  this,  that  whilst  the  signification 
was  the  same,  the  words  were  different.  And  thus,  again,  does  the 
prosecutor  require  of  you  to  separate  the  sense  from  the  sound,  and 
to  convict  for  the  sound,  against  the  sense  of  the  passage. 

"  Li  plain  truth,  gentlemen,  if  there  be  a  harshness  in  the  sound, 
there  is  none  in  the  woi'ds.  The  writer  describes,  and  means  to 
describe,  the  ordinary  termination  of  every  administration  repaying 
in  promises  the  defaults  of  performance.  And,  when  he  speaks  of 
falsehood,  he  prophecies  merely  as  to  the  probable  or  at  least  possible 
conclusion  of  the  present  government.  He  does  not  impute  to  any 
precedent,  assertion,  falsehood  ;  but  he  does  predict,  that  the  conclud- 
ing promise  of  this,  as  of  other  administrations,  depending  as  those 
promises  always  do  upon  other  persons  for  performance,  will  remain 
as-  former  promises  have  remained — unfulfilled  and  unperformed. 
And  is  this  prophecy — this  prediction  a  crime  ?  Is  it  a  libel  to 
prophecy  ?     See   what  topics   this  sage   venerator   of  the   liberty  of 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  517 

the  Press,  the  Attorney-General,  would  fain  prohibil.  First,  he 
tells  you,  that  the  crimes  of  the  predecessors  of  the  Duke  must  not 
be  mentioned — and  thus  he  forbids  the  history  of  past  events. 
Secondly,  he  informs  you,  that  no  allusion  is  to  be  made  to  the 
errors,  follies,  or  even  to  the  striking  features  of  the  present  gover- 
nors ;  and  thus  he  forbids  the  detail  of  the  occurrences  of  the  present 
day.  And,  thirdly,  he  declares  that  no  conjecture  shall  be  made 
upon  what  is  likely  to  occur  hereafter  ;  and  thus  he  forbids  all 
attempts  to  anticipate  future  facts. 

"  It  comes  simply  to  this  ;  he  talks  of  venerating  the  liberties  of 
the  Press,  and  yet  he  '  restrains  that  Press  from  discussing  past 
history,  present  story,  and  future  probabilities  ;  he  prohibts  the 
past,  the  present,  and  the  future ;  ancient  records,  modern  truth, 
and  prophecy,  are  all  within  the  capacious  range  of  his  punishments. 
Is  there  anything  else  ?  Would  this  venerator  of  the  liberty  of  the 
Press  go  further  ?  Yes,  gentlemen,  having  forbidden  all  matter  of 
history  past  and  present,  and  all  prediction  of  the  future,  he  gene^ 
rously  throws  in  abstract  principles,  and,  as  he  has  told  you,  that 
his  prisons  shall  contain  every  person  who  speaks  of  what  was,  or 
what  is,  or  what  will  be,  he  likewise  consigned  to  the  same  fate  every 
person  who  treats  of  the  theory  or  principles  of  government ;  and  yet 
he  dares  to  talk  of  the  liberty  of  the  Press  ?  Can  you  be  his 
dupes  ?  AVill  you  be  his  victims  ?  "Where  is  the  conscience — where 
is  the  indignant  spirit  of  insulted  reason  amongst  you  ?  Has  party 
feeling  extinguished  in  your  breasts  every  glow  of  virtue — every 
spark  of  manhood  ? 

"If  there  be  any  warmth  about  you — if  you  are  not  clay-cold 
to  all  but  party  feeling,  I  would,  with  the  air  and  in  the  tone  of 
triumph,  call  you  to  the  consideration  of  the  remaining  paragra^jh 
which  has  been  spread  on  the  lengthened  indictment  before  you.  I 
divide  it  into  two  branches,  and  shall  do  no  more  with  the  one  than 
to  repeat  it.     I  read  it  for  you  already ;  I  must  read  it  again  : — 

"  '  Had  he  remained  what  he  first  came  over,  or  what  he  after- 
wards professed  to  be,  he  would  have  retained  his  reputation  for 
honest.,  open  hostility,  defending  his  political  principles  with  firm- 
ness, perhaps,  with  warmth,  but  without  rancour ;  the  supporter, 
and  not  the  tool  of  an  administration  ;  a  mistaken  politician,  perhaps, 
but  an  honourable  man,  and  a  respectable  soldier.' 

"  Would  to  God  I  had  to  address  another  jury !  Would  to  God  I 
had  judgment  and  reason  to  address,  and  I  could  entertain  no  ap- 


518  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

prehension  from  passion  or  prejudice!  Here  should  I  then  take 
my  stand,  and  require  of  that  unprejudiced  jury  whether  this  sentence 
does  not  demonstrate  the  complete  absence  of  private  malice  or 
personal  hostility.  Does  not  this  sentence  prove  a  kindly  dis- 
position toward  the  individual,  mixing  and  mingling  with  that 
discussion  which  freedom  sanctions  and  requires,  respecting  his 
political  conduct  ?  Contrast  this  sentence  with  the  prosecutor's 
accusation  of  private  malignity,  and  decide  between  ]Mr.  Magee  and 
his  calumniators.  He,  at  least,  has  this  advantage,  that  your  verdict 
cannot  alter  the  nature  of  things ;  and  that  the  public  must  see 
and  feel  this  truth,  that  the  present  prosecution  is  directed  against 
the  discussion  of  the  conduct  towards  the  public,  of  men  confided 
with  public  authority,  that  this  is  a  direct  attack  upon  the  right  to 
call  the  attention  of  the  people  to  the  management  of  the  people's 
affairs,  and  that,  by  your  verdict  of  conviction,  it  is  intended  to  leave 
no  peaceful  or  unawed  mode  of  redress  for  the  wrongs  and  sufferings 
of  the  people. 

"  But  I  will  not  detain  you  on  these  obvious  topics.  We  draw 
to  a  close,  and  I  hurry  to  it.  This  sentence  is  said  to  be  particularly 
libellous : — 

"  '  His  party  would  have  been  proud  of  him;  his  friends  would  have 
praised  (they  need  not  have  flattered  him),  and  his  enemies,  though 
they  might  have  regretted,  must  have  respected  his  conduct ;  from 
the  worst  quarter  there  would  have  been  some  small  tribute  of  praise ; 
from  none  any  great  portion  of  censure ;  and  his  administration, 
though  not  popular,  would  have  been  conducted  with  dignity,  and 
without  offence.  This  line  of  conduct  he  has  taken  care  to  avoid  : 
his  original  character  for  moderation  he  has  forfeited  ;  he  can  lay  no 
claim  to  any  merits  for  neutrality,  nor  does  he  even  deserve  the 
cheerless  credit  of  defensive  operations.  He  has  begun  to  act ;  he 
has  ceased  to  be  a  dispassionate  chief  governor,  who  views  the  wicked- 
ness and  the  folly  of  faction  with  composure  and  forbearance,  and 
stands  the  representative  of  majesty  aloof  from  the  contest.  He 
descends  ;  he  mixes  with  the  throng ;  he  becomes  personally  engaged, 
and  having  lost  his  temper,  calls  forth  his  private  passions  to  support 
his  public  principles ;  he  is  no  longer  an  indifferent  viceroy,  but  a 
frightful  partisan  of  an  English  ministry,  whose  base  passions  he 
indulges — whose  unworthy  resentments  he  gratifies,  and  on  whose 
behalf  he  at  present  canvasses.' 

"  Well,  gentlemen,  and  did  he  not  canvass  on  behalf  of  the  minis- 


DANIEL    o'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  519 

try  ?  "Was  there  a  titled  or  untitled  servant  of  the  Castle  who  was 
not  despatched  to  the  south  to  vote  against  the  popular,  and  for  the 
ministerial  candidates  ?  Was  there  a  single  individual  within  the 
reach  of  his  grace  that  did  not  vote  against  Prittie  and  Mathew,  in 
Tipperary,  and  against  Hutchinson,  in  Cork.  I  have  brought  with 
me  some  of  the  newspapers  of  the  day,  in  which  this  partisanship  in 
the  Lord  Lieutenant  is  treated  by  Mr.  Hutchinson  in  language  so 
strong  and  so  pointed,  that  the  words  of  this  publication  are  mildness 
and  softness  itself,  when  compared  with  that  language.  I  shall  not 
read  them  for  you,  because  I  should  fear  that  you  may  imagine  I 
unnecessarily  identified  my  client  with  the  violent  but  merited 
reprobation  poured  upon  the  scandalous  interference  of  our  govern- 
ment with  those  elections.  I  need  not,  I  am  sure,  tell  you  that  any 
interference  by  the  Lord  Lieutenant  with  the  purity  of  the  election 
of  members  to  serve  in  Parliament,  is  highly  unconstitutional  and 
highly  criminal ;  he  is  doubly  bound  to  the  most  strict  neutrality; 
first,  as  a  peer,  the  law  prohibits  his  interference  ;  secondly,  as  repre- 
sentative of  the  crown,  his  interference  in  elections  is  an  usurpation 
of  the  people's  rights ;  it  is,  in  substance  and  effect,  high  treason  against 
the  people,  and  its  mischiefs  are  not  the  less  by  reason  of  there  being 
no  punishment  affixed  by  the  law  to  this  treason. 

''  If  this  offence,  gentlemen,  be  of  daily  recurrence — if  it  be  fre- 
quently committed,  it  is  upon  that  account  only  the  more  destructive 
to  our  liberties,  and,  therefore,  reqviires  the  more  loud,  direct,  and 
frequent  comdemnation  :  indeed,  if  such  practices  be  permitted  to 
prevail,  there  is  an  end  of  every  remnant  of  freedom  ;  our  boasted 
constitution  becomes  a  mockery  and  an  object  of  ridicule,  and  we 
ought  to  desire  the  manly  simplicity  of  unmixed  despotism.  Will  the 
Attorney-General — will  his  colleague,  the  Solicitor-General,  deny 
that  I  have  described  this  offence  in  its  true  colours  ?  Will  they 
attempt  to  deny  the  interference  of  the  Duke  of  Richmond  in  the  late 
elections  ?  I  would  almost  venture  to  put  your  verdict  upon  this, 
and  to  consent  to  a  conviction,  if  any  person  shall  be  found  so  stocked 
with  audacity,  as  to  presume  publicly  to  deny  the  interference  of  his 
grace  in  the  late  elections,  and  his  partisanship  in  favour  of  the 
ministerial  candidates.  Gentlemen,  if  that  be  denied,  what  will  you, 
what  can  you  think  of  the  veracity  of  the  man  who  denies  it  ?  I 
fearlessly  refer  the  fact  to  you ;  on  that  fact  I  build.  This  inter- 
ference is  as  notorious  as  the  sun  at  noon  day ;  and  who  shall 
venture  to   deny   that   such   interference  is  described  by  a  soft  term 


520  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

when  it  is  called  partisanship  ?  He  who  uses  the  influence  of  the 
executive  to  control  the  choice  of  the  representatives  of  the  people, 
violates  the  first  principles  of  the  constitution,  is  guilty  of  politionl 
sacrilege,  and  profanes  the  very  sanctuary  of  the  people's  rights  and 
liberties ;  and  if  he  should  not  be  called  a  partisan,  it  is  only  because 
some  harsher,  and  more  appropriate  term  ought  to  be  applied  to  his 
delinquency.  • 

"  I  will  recall  to  your  minds  an  instance  of  violation  of  the  con- 
stitution, which  will  illustrate  the  situation  of  my  client,  and  the 
protection,  which  for  your  own  sakes,  you  owe  him.  When,  in  1687, 
King  James  removed  several  Protestant  rectors  in  Ireland  from  their 
churches,  against  law  and  justice,  and  illegally  and  unconstitutionally 
placed  Roman  Catholic  clergymen  in  their  stead,  would  any  of  you 
be  content  that  he  should  be  simply  called  a  partisan !  No,  gentle- 
men, my  client  and  I — Catholic  and  Protestant  though  we  be — agree 
perfectly  in  this,  that  partisan  would  have  been  too*mild  a  name  for 
him,  and  that  he  should  have  been  branded  as  a  violator  of  law,  as 
an  enemy  to  the  constitution,  and  as  a  crafty  tyrant  who  sought  to 
gratify  the  prejudices  of  one  part  of  his  subjects  that  he  might  trample 
upon  the  liberties  of  all.  And  what,  I  would  fain  learn,  could  you 
think  of  the  Attorney-General  who  prosecuted,  or  of  the  judge  who 
condemned,  or  of  the  jury  who  convicted  a  printer  for  publishing  to 
the  world  this  tyranny — this  gross  violation  of  law  and  justice  ?  But 
how  would  your  indignation  be  roused,  if  James  had  been  only  called 
a  partiisan,  and  for  calling  him  a  partisan  a  popish  jury  had  been 
packed,  a  popish  judge  had  been  selected,  and  that  the  printer,  who, 
you  will  admit,  deserved  applause  and  reward,  met  condemnation  and 
punishment. 

"  Of  you — of  you,  shall  this  story  be  told,  if  you  convict  Mr. 
Magee.  The  Duke  has  interfered  in  elections;  he  has  violated  the 
liberties  of  the  subject ;  he  has  profaned  the  very  temple  of  the  con- 
stitution ;  and  he,  who  has  said  that  in  so  doing,  he  was  a  partisan, 
from  your  hands  expects  punishment. 

"  Compare  the  kindred  offences :  James  deprived  the  Protestant 
rectors  of  their  livings ;  he  did  not  persecute,  nor  did  he  interfere 
with  their  religion  ;  for  tithes,  and  oblations,  and  glebes,  and  church 
lands,  though  solid  appendages  to  any  church,  are  no  part  of  the 
Protestant  religion.  The  Protestant  religion  would,  I  presume — and 
for  the  honour  of  human  nature  I  sincerely  hope — continue  its  in- 
fluence  over   the  human  mind    without   the  aid  of  those  extrinsic 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,  M.P.  521 

advantages.  Its  pastors  would,  I  trust  and  believe,  have  remained 
true  to  their  charge,  without  the  adventitious  benefits  of  temporal 
rewards;  and,  like  the  Roman  Catholic  church,  it  might  have  shone 
forth  a  glorious  example  of  firmness  in  religion,  setting  persecution 
at  defiance.  James  did  not  attack  the  Protestant  religion  ;  I  repeat  it; 
he  only  attacked  the  revenues  of  the  Protestant  church  ;  he  violated 
the  law  and  the  constitution,  in  depriving  men  of  that  property,  by 
his  individual  authority,  to  which  they  had  precisely  the  same  right 
with  that  by  which  he  wore  his  crown.  But  is  not  the  controlling  the 
election  of  members  of  parliament  a  more  dangerous  violation  of  the 
constitution  ?  Does  it  not  corrupt  the  very  sources  of  legislation, 
and  convert  the  guardians  of  the  state  into  its  plunderers?  The  one 
was  a  direct  and  undisguised  crime,  capable  of  being  redressed  in  the 
ordinary  course  of  the  law,  and  producing  resistance  by  its  open  and 
plain  violation  of  right  and  of  law  ;  the  other  disguises  itself  in  so 
many  shapes,  is  patronised  by  so  many  high  examples,  and  is  fol- 
lowed by  such  perfect  security,  that  it  becomes  the  first  duty  of  every 
man,  who  possesses  any  reverence  for  the  constitution,  or  any  attach- 
ment to  liberty,  to  lend  all  his  efforts  to  detect,  and,  if  possible,  to 
punish  it. 

"  To  any  man  who  loved  the  constitution  or  freedom,  I  could 
safely  appeal  for  my  client's  vindication ;  or  if  any  displeasure  could 
be  excited  in  the  mind  of  such  a  man,  it  would  arise  because  of  the 
forbearance  and  lenity  of  this  publication.  But  the  Duke  is  called  a 
frightful  partisan.  Granted,  gentlemen,  granted.  And  is  not  the 
interference  I  have  mentioned  frightful  ?  Is  it  not  terrific  ?  Who 
can  contemplate  it  without  shuddering  at  the  consequences  which  it 
is  likely  to  produce  ?  What  gentler  phrase — what  lady-like  expres- 
sion should  my  client  use  ?  The  constitution  is  sought  to  be 
violated,  and  he  calls  the  author  of  that  violation  a  frightful  partisan. 
Really,  gentlemen,  the  fastidiousness  which  would  reject  this  expres- 
sion would  be  better  employed  in  preventing  or  punishing  crime, 
than  in  dragging  to  a  dungeon  the  man  who  has  the  manliness  to 
adhere  to  truth,  and  to  use  it.  Recollect  also^ — I  cannot  repeat  it  too 
often — that  the  Attorney-General  told  you,  that  '  the  liberty  of  the 
Press  was  the  best  protection  of  the  people  against  the  government.' 
Now,  if  the  constitution  be  violated — if  the  purity  of  election  be 
disturbed  by  the  executive,  is  not  this  precisely  the  case  when  this 
pi'otection  becomes  necessary  ?  It  is  not  wanted,  nor  can  the  Press 
be  called  a  protector,  so  long  as  the  government  is  administered  with 


522  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

fidelity,  care,  and  skill.  The  protection  of  the  Press  is  requisite 
only  when  integrity,  diligence,  or  judgment  do  not  belong  to  the 
administration  ;  and  that  protection  becomes  the  more  necessary  in 
the  exact  proportion  in  which  these  qualities  are  deficient.  But, 
what  protection  can  it  afford  if  you  convict  in  this  instance  ?  For, 
by  doing  so,  you  will  decide  that  nothing  ought  to  be  said  against 
that  want  of  honesty,  or  of  attention,  or  of  understanding  ;  the 
more  necessary  will  the  protection  of  the  Press  become,  the  more 
unsafe  will  it  be  to  pwblish  the  truth  ;  and  in  the  exact  proportion 
in  which  the  Press  might  be  viseful,  wiU  it  become  liable  to  punish- 
ment. In  short,  according  to  the  Attorney- General's  doctrine,  when 
the  Press  is  '  best  employed  and  wanted  most,'  it  will  be  most 
dangerous  to  use  it.  And  thus,  the  more  corrupt  and  profligate  any 
administration  may  be,  the  more  clearly  can  the  public  prosecutor 
ascertain  the  sacrifice  of  his  selected  victim.  And  call  you  this 
protection  ?  Is  this  a  protector  who  must  be  disarmed  the  moment 
danger  threatens,  and  is  bound  a  prisoner  the  instant  the  fight  has 
commenced  ? 

"  Here  I  should  close  the  case — here  I  should  shortly  recapitulate 
my  client's  defence,  and  leave  him  to  your  consideration  ;  but  I 
have  been  already  too  tedious,  and  shall  do  no  more  than  recall  to 
your  recollection  the  purity,  the  integrity,  the  entire  disinterested- 
ness of  Mr.  Magee's  motives.  If  money  were  his  object,  he  could 
easily  procure  himself  to  be  patronised  and  salaried  ;  but  he  prefers 
to  be  persecuted  and  discountenanced  by  the  great  and  powerful, 
because  they  cannot  deprive  him  of  the  certain  expectation,  that  his 
exertions  are  useful  to  his  long-suffering  ill-requited  country. 

"  He  is  disinterested,  gentlemen  ;  he  is  honest ;  the  Attorney- 
General  admitted  it,  and  actually  took  the  trouble  of  administering 
to  him  advice  how  to  amend  his  fortune  and  save  his  person.  But 
the  advice  only  made  his  youthful  blood  mantle  in  that  ingenious 
countenance,  and  his  reply  was  painted  in  the  indignant  look,  that 
told  the  Attorney-General  he  might  offer  wealth,  but  he  could  not 
bribe — that  he  might  torture,  but  he  could  not  terrify !  Yes,  gentle- 
men, firm  in  his  honesty,  and  strong  in  the  fervour  of  his  love  of 
Ireland,  he  fearlessly  awaits  your  verdict,  convinced  that  even  you 
must  respect  the  man  whom  you  are  called  upon  to  condemn.  Look 
to  it,  gentlemen  ;  consider  whether  an  honest,  disinterested  man  shall 
be  prohibited  from  discussing  public  affairs  ;  consider  whether  all 
but  flattery  is  to  be  silent — whether  the  discussion  of  the  errors  and 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,  M.P.  523 

the  capacities  of  the  ministers  is  to  be  closed  for  ever.  Whether 
we  are  to  be  silent  as  to  the  crimes  of  former  periods — the  follies  of 
the  present,  and  the  credulity  of  the  future ;  and,  above  all,  reflect 
upon  the  demand  that  is  made  on  you  to  punish  the  canvassing  of 
abstract  principles. 

"  Has  the  Attorney-General  succeeded  ?  Has  he  pi'ocm-ed  a  jury 
so  fitted  to  his  object,  as  to  be  ready  to  bury  in  oblivion  every  fault 
and  every  crime,  every  error  and  every  imperfection  of  public  men, 
past,  present,  and  future — and  who  shall,  in  addition,  silence  any 
dissertation  on  the  theory  or  principal  of  legislation.  Do,  gentlemen, 
go  this  length  with  the  prosecutor,  and  then  venture  on  your  oaths. 
I  charge  you  to  venture  to  talk  your  families  of  the  venerable  liberty 
of  the  Press — the  protection  of  the  people  against  the  vices  of  the 
government.  I  should  conclude,  but  the  Attorney- General  com- 
pels me  to  follow  him  through  another  subject ;  he  has  told  you,  and 
told  you  truly,  that  besides  the  matter  set  out  in  the  indictment — the 
entire  of  which,  gentlemen,  we  have  already  gone  through — this 
publication  contains  severe  strictures  upon  the  alleged  indelicacy  in 
the  Chief  Justice  issuing  a  ministerial  warrant,  in  a  case  which  was 
afterwards  to  come  before  him  judicially,  and  upon  the  manner  in 
which  the  jury  was  attempted  to  be  put  together  in  Doctor  Sheridan's 
case,  and  in  which  a  jury  was  better  arranged  in  the  case  of  Mr. 
Kirwan.  Indeed,  the  Attorney-General  seemed  much  delighted 
with  these  topics  ;  he  again  burst  out  into  an  enraptured  encomium 
upon  himself ;  and,  as  it  were  inspired  by  his  subject,  he  rose  to  the 
dignity  of  a  classical  quotation,  when  he  exclaimed,  '  me  me,  adsum, 
qui  feci.'  HE  forgot  to  add  the  still  more  appropriate  remainder  of 
the  sentence,    '  mea  fraus  omnis  !' 

"Yes,  gentlemen,  he  has  avowed  with  more  manliness  than  disci'e 
tion,  that  he  was  the  contriver  of  all  those  measures.  With  respect 
to  the  warrant  which  his  lordship  issued  in  the  stead  of  the  ordinary 
justices  of  the  peace,  and  upon  a  charge  not  amounting  to  any 
breach  of  the  peace,  I  shall  say  nothing  at  present.  An  obvious 
delicacy  restrains  me  fi'om  entering  upon  that  subject ;  and  as  the 
interest  of  my  client  does  not  counteract  that  delicacy,  I  shall  refrain. 
But  I  would  not  have  it  understood  that  I  have  formed  no  opinion 
on  the  subject.  Yes,  I  have  formed  an  opinion,  and  a  strong  and 
decided  opinion,  which  I  am  ready  to  support  as  a  lawyer,  and  a  man, 
but  the  expression  of  which  I  now  sacrifice  to  a  plain  delicacy. 
But  I  must  say,  that  the  Attorney-General  has  thrown  new  light  on 


524  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

this  business  ;  lie  has  given  us  information  we  did  not  possess  before. 
I  did  not  before  know  that  the  warrant  was  sought  for  and  procured 
by  the  Attorney-General  ;  I  thought  it  was  the  spontaneous  act  of  his 
lordship,  and  not  in  consequence  of  any  private  solicitation  from  the 
Attorney-General.  In  this  respect,  he  has  set  me  right — it  is  a  fact 
of  considerable  value,  and  although  the  consequences  to  be  deduced 
from  it  are  not  pleasing  to  any  man,  loving,  as  I  do,  the  purity  of 
justice,  yet,  I  most  heartily  thank  the  Attorney-General  for  the 
fact — the  important  fact. 

"  His  second  avowal  relates  to  Doctor  Sheridan.  It  really  is  com- 
fortable to  know  how  much  of  the  indecent  scene  exhibited  upon  his 
trial  belonged  to  the  Attorney-General.  He  candidly  tells  us,  that 
the  obtrusion  of  the  police  magistrate,  Sirr,  as  an  assistant  to  the 
Crown  Solicitor,  was  the  act  of  the  King's  Attorney-General. 
'Adsum  qui  feci,'  said  he.  Thus  he  avows  that  he  procured  an 
Orangeman — /  do  not  exactly  understand  what  is  meant  hy  an 
Orangeman — some  of  you  could  easily  tell  me — that  he  caused  this 
Orangeman  to  stand  in  open  court,  next  to  the  Solicitor  for  the 
Crown,  with  his  written  paper,  suggesting  who  were  fit  jurors  for  his 
purpose,  and  who  should  be  put  by.  Gentlemen,  he  avows  that  this 
profligate  scene  was  acted  in  the  open  court,  by  his  directions.  It 
was  by  the  Attorney-General's  special  directions,  then,  that  such 
men  as  •  John  Lindsay,  of  Sackville-street,  and  John  Roche,  of 
Strand-street,  were  set  aside  ;  the  latter,  because,  though  amongst 
the  most  wealthy  and  respectable  merchants  in  your  city,  he  is  a 
Papist ;  and  the  other,  because,  although  a  Protestant,  he  is  tainted 
with  liberality — the  only  offence,  public  or  private,  that  could  be 
attributed  to  him.  Yes,  such  men  as  these  were  set  aside  by  the 
Attorney-General's  aid-de-camp,  the  salaried  justice  of  the  police 
office. 

"  The  next  avowal  is  also  precious.  This  publication  contains 
also  a  commentary  on  the  Castle-list  jury  that  convicted  Mr.  Kirwan, 
and  the  Attorney-General  has  also  avowed  his  share  in  that  transac- 
tion ;  he  thus  supplies  the  only  link  we  wanted  in  our  chain  of  evi- 
dence, when  we  challenged  the  array  upon  that  trial.  If  we  could  have 
proved  that  which  the  Attorney.General,  with  his  '  adsum  qui  feci,' 
yesterday  admitted,  we  shoiUd  have  succeeded  and  got  rid  of  that 
panel.  Even  now,  it  is  delightful  to  understand  the  entire  machi- 
nery, and  one  now  sees  at  once  the  reason  why  Sir  Charles  Saxton 
was  not  examined  on  the  part  of  the  crown,  in  reply  to  the  case  we 


DANIEL    0'C0NNEI,L,    ESQ.,    M.P.  525 

made.  He  would,  you  now  plainly  see,  have  traced  the  arrangement 
to  the  Attorney-General,  and  the  array  must  have  been  quashed. 
Thus  in  the  boasting  humour  of  this  Attorney-General,  he  has 
brought  home  to  himself  personally,  that  which  we  attributed  to  him 
only  in  his  official  capacity,  and  he  has  convicted  the  man  of  that 
which  we  charged  only  upon  the  office. 

"  He  has,  he  must  have  a  motive  for  this  avowal ;  if  he  had  not 
an  adequate  object  in  view,  he  would  not  have  thus  unnecessainly 
and  wantonly  taken  upon  himself  all  the  reproach  of  those  transac- 
tions. He  would  not  have  boasted  of  having,  out  of  court,  solicited 
an  extra  judicial  opinion,  in  the  foi-m  of  a  warrant  from  his  lordship  ; 
he  would  not  have  gloried  in  employing  an  Orangeman  from  the  police 
office  to  assist  him  in  open  court,  with  instructions  in  writing  how  to 
pack  his  jury ;  still  less  would  he  have  suffered  it  to  be  believed  that 
he  was  a  party  at  the  Castle,  with  the  acting  Secretary  of  State,  to 
the  arrangement  of  the  jury  that  was  afterwards  to  try  a  person 
prosecuted  by  the  state.  He  would  not  have  made  this,  I  must  say, 
disgraceful  avowal,  unless  he  were  influenced  by  an  adequate  motive. 
I  can  easily  tell  you  what  that  motive  was.  He  knew  your  preju- 
dices— he  knew  your  antipathy — alas  !  your  interested  antipathy — 
to  the  Catholics,  and,  therefore,  in  order  to  induce  you  to  convict  a 
Protestant  of  a  libel  for  a  publication,  innocent,  if  not  useful  in  itself, 
in  order  to  procure  that  conviction  from  your  party  feelings  and 
your  prejudices,  which  he  despaired  of  obtaining  from  your  judg- 
ments, he  vaunts  himself  to  you  as  the  mighty  destroyer  of  the 
hopes  of  popish  petitioners — as  a  man  capable  of  every  act  within, 
as  out  of  the  profession,  to  prevent  or  impede  any  relief  to  the  papists. 
In  short,  he  wishes  to  show  himself  to  you  as  an  active  partisan  at 
your  side ;  and  upon  those  merits  he  who  knows  you  best,  claims 
your  verdict — a  verdict  which  must  be  given  in  on  your  oaths,  and 
attested  by  and  in  the  name  of  the  Gor>  of  the  Christians. 

"  For  my  part  I  frankly  avow  that  I  shudder  at  these  scenes  ;  I 
cannot,  without  horror,  view  this  interfering  and  intermeddling  with 
judges  and  juries,  and  my  abhorrence  must  be  augmented,  when  I 
find  it  avowed,  that  the  actors  in  all  these  sad  exhibitions  were  the 
mere  puppits  of  the  Attorney- General,  moved  by  his  wires,  and 
performing  under  his  conti'ol.  It  is  in  vain  to  look  for  safety  to 
person  or  property,  whilst  this  system  is  allowed  to  pervade  our 
courts;  the  very  fountain  of  justice  may  be  corrupted  at  its  source, 
and  those  waters  which  should  confer  health  and  vigour  throughout 


526  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

the  land,  can  then  diffuse  nought  but  mephitic  and  pestilential 
vapours  to  disgust  and  to  destroy.  If  honesty,  if  justice  be  silent, 
yet  prudence  ought  to  check  these  practices.  "We  live  in  a  new 
era — a  melancholy  era,  in  which  perfidy  and  profligacy  are  sanctioned 
by  high  authority ;  the  base  violation  of  plighted  faith,  the  deep 
stain  of  dishonour,  infidelity  in  love,  treachery  in  friendship,  the 
abandonment  of  every  principle,  and  the  adoption  of  every  frivolity 
and  of  every  vice  that  can  excite  hatred  combined  with  ridicule — 
all — all  this,  and  more,  may  be  seen  around  us  ;  and  yet  it  is  believed, 
it  is  expected;  that  this  system  is  fated  to  be  eternal.  Gentlemen,  we 
shall  all  weep  the  insane  delusion,  and  in  the  terrific  moments  of 
altercation  you  know  not,  you  cannot  know,  how  soon  or  how  bitterly 
the  ingredients  of  your  own  poisoned  chalice  may  be  commended  to 
your  own  lips. 

"  With  these  views  around  us — with  these  horrible  prospects  lying 
obscurely  before  us — in  sadness  and  in  sorrow  party  feelings  may 
find  a  solitary  consolation.  My  heart  feels  a  species  of  relief  Avhen 
I  recollect  that  not  one  single  Roman  Catholic  has  been  found  suited 
to  the  Attorney-General's  purpose.  With  what  an  affectation  of 
liberality  would  he  have  placed,  at  least,  one  Roman  Catholic  on 
his  juries,  if  he  could  have  found  one  Roman  Catholic  gentleman  in 
this  city  capable  of  being  managed  into  fitness  for  those  juries.  You 
well  know  that  the  very  first  merchants  of  this  city,  in  wealth  as  well 
as  in  character,  are  Catholics.  Some  of  you  serve  occasionally  on  special 
juries  in  important  cases  of  private  property.  Have  you  ever  seen 
one  of  those  special  juries  without  many  Catholics? — frequently  a 
majority — seldom  less  than  one-half  of  Catholics.  Why  are  Catholics 
excluded  from  these  state  juries?  Who  shall  venture  to  avow  the 
reason  ?  Oh,  for  the  partisan  indiscretion  that  would  blindly  avow 
the  reason !  It  is,  in  truth,  a  high  compliment,  which  persecution, 
in  spite  of  itself,  pays  to  independent  integrity. 

"  It  is,  in  fact,  a  compliment.  It  is  intended  for  a  reproach,  for  a 
libel.  It  is  meant  to  insinuate  that  such  a  man,  for  example,  as 
Randal  M'Donnell — the  pride  and  boast  of  commerce — one  of  the 
first  contributors  to  the  revenues  of  the  state,  and  the  first  in  all 
the  sweet  charities  of  social  life — would  refuse  to  do  justice, 
upon  his  oath,  to  the  Crown,  and  perjure  himself  in  a  state  trial, 
because  he  is  a  Roman  Cathlic.  You,  even  you,  would  be  shocked, 
if  any  man  were  so  audacious  as  to  assert,  in  words,  so  foul  a 
libel,  so  false  a  calumny ;  and  yet  what  does  the  conduct  of  the  Attor- 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,  Rl.P.  527 

ney-General  amount  to  ?  Wliy,  practically,  to  just  such  a  libel,  to 
precisely  such  a  calumny.  He  acts  a  part  which  he  would  not 
venture  to  speak,  and  endeavours  silently  to  inflict  a  censure,  which 
no  man  could  be  found  so  devoid  of  shame  as  to  assert  in  words. 
And  here,  gentlemen,  is  a  libel  for  which  there  is  no  punishment  ; 
here  is  a  profligate  calumny  for  which  the  law  furnishes  no  redress ; 
he  can  continue  to  calumniate  us  by  his  rejection.  See  whether  he 
does  not  offer  you  a  greater  insult  by  his  selection  ;  lay  your  hands 
to  your  hearts,  and  in  private  communion  with  yourselves,  ask  the 
reason  why  you  have  been  sought  for  and  selected  for  this  jury — 
will  you  discover  that  you  have  been  selected  because  of  admitted* 
impartiality  ? 

"  Would  to  God  you  could  make  that  discovery !  It  would  be  one 
on  which  my  client  might  build  the  certain  expectation  of  a  trium- 
phant acquittal. 

"  Let  me  transport  you  from  the  heat  and  fury  of  domestic 
politics ;  let  me  place  you  in  a  foreign  land  ;  you  are  Protestants, 
with  your  good  leave,  you  shall,  for  a  moment,  be  Portuguese, 
and  Portuguese  is  now  an  honourable  name,  for  right  well  have 
the  people  of  Portugal  fought  for  their  country,  against  the  foreign 
invader.  Oh!  how  easy  to  procure  a  similar  spirit,  and  more  of 
bravery,  amongst  the  people  of  Ireland  !  The  slight  purchase  of  good 
words,  and  a  kindly  disposition,  would  convert  them  into  an  impene- 
trable guard  for  the  safety  of  the  Throne  and  the  State.  But 
advice  and  regret  are  equally  unavailing,  and  they  are  doomed  to 
calumny  and  oppression,  the  reality  of  persecution,  and  the  mockery 
of  justice,  until  some  fatal  hour  shall  arrive,  which  may  preach  wisdom 
to  the  dupes,  and  menace  with  punishment  the  oppressor. 

"  In  the  meantime  I  must  place  you  in  Portugah  Let  us  suppose, 
for  an  instant,  that  the  Protestant  religion  is  that  of  the  people  of 
Portugal — the  Catholic,  that  of  the  government — that  the  House  of 
Braganza  has  not  reigned,  but  that  Portugal  is  still  governed  by  the 
viceroy  of  a  foreign  nation,  from  whom  no  kindness,  no  favour  has 
ever  flowed,  and  from  whom  justice  has  rarely  been  obtained,  and 
upon  those  unfrequent  occasions,  not  conceded  generously,  but 
extorted  by  foi'ce,  or  wrung  from  distress  by  terror  and  apprehension, 
in  a  stinted  measure  and  ungracious  manner ;  you,  Protestants,  shall 
form,  not  as  with  us  in  Ireland,  nine-tenths,  but  some  lesser  number, 
you  shall  be  only  four-fifths  of  the  population  ;  and  all  the  persecution 
which   you  have  yourselves  practised  here  upon  papists,  whilst  you, 


528  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

at  the  same  time,  accused  the  papists  of  the  crime  of  being  perse- 
cutors, shall  glow  around  ;  your  native  land  shall  be  to  you  the 
country  of  strangers ;  you  shall  be  aliens  in  the  soil  that  gave  you 
birth,  and  whilst  every  foreigner  may,  in  the  land  of  your  forefathers, 
attain  rank,  station,  emolument,  honours,  you  alone  shall  be 
excluded  ;  and  you  shall  be  excluded  for  no  other  reason  but  a  con- 
scientious abhorence  to  the  religion  of  your  ancestors. 

"  Only  think,  gentlemen,  of  the  scandalous  injustice  of  punishing 
you  because  you  are  Protestants.  With  what  scorn — with  what 
contempt  do  you  not  listen  to  the  stale  pretences — to  the  miserable 
"excuses  by  which,  under  the  name  of  state  reasons  and  political 
arguments,  your  exclusion  and  degradation  are  sought  to  be  justified. 
Your  reply  is  ready — '  perform  your  iniquity — men  of  crimes  (you 
exclaim)  be  unjust — punish  us  for  our  fidelity  and  honest  adherence 
to  truth,  but  insult  us  not  by  supposing  that  your  reasoning  can 
impose  upon  a  single  individual  either  of  us  or  of  yourselves.'  In 
this  situation  let  me  give  you  a  viceroy  ;  he  shall  be  a  man  who  may 
be  styled — by  some  person  disposed  to  exaggerate,  beyond  bounds,  his 
merits,  and  to  flatter  him  more  than  enough — '  an  honourable  man 
and  a  respectable  soldier,'  but,  in  point  of  fact,  he  shall  be  of  that 
little-minded  class  of  beings  who  are  suited  to  be  the  plaything  of 
knaves — one  of  those  men  who  imagine  they  govern  a  nation, 
whilst,  in  reality,  they  are  but  the  instruments  upon  which  the  crafty 
play  with  safety  and  with  profit.  Take  such  a  man  for  your 
viceroy — Protestant  Portuguese.  We  shall  begin  with  making  this 
tour  from  Tralos  Montes  to  the  kingdom  of  Algesiras — as  one 
amongst  us  should  say,  from  the  Giant's  Causeway  to  the  kingdom  of 
Kerry.  Upon  this  tour  he  shall  aifect  great  candour  and  good-will 
to  the  poor  suffering  Protestants.  The  bloody  anniversaries  of  the 
inquisitorial  triumphs  of  former  days  shall  be  for  a  season  abandoned, 
and  over  our  inherent  hostilty  the  garb  of  hypocrisy  shall,  for  a 
season,  be  thrown.  Enmity  to  the  Protestants  shall  become,  for  a 
moment,  less  apparent ;  but  it  will  be  only  the  more  odious  for  the 
transitory  disguise. 

"  The  delusion  of  the  hour  having  served  its  purpose,  your 
viceroy  shows  himself  in  his  native  colours  ;  he  selects  for  oflice,  and 
prefers  for  his  pension-list,  the  men  miserable  in  intellect,  if  they  be 
but  virulent  against  the  Protestants  ;  to  rail  against  the  Protestant 
religion — to  turn  its  holiest  rites  into  ridicule — to  slander  the 
individual  Protestants,  are   the  surest,  the  only  means  to  obtain  his 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  529 

favour  and  patronage.  He  selects  from  his  popish  bigots  some,  being 
more  canine  than  human,  who,  not  having  talents  to  sell,  brings  to 
the  market  of  bigotry  his  impudence — who,  with  no  quality  under 
heaven,  but  gross,  vulgar,  acrimonious,  disgustful,  and  shamelesis 
abuse  of  Protestantism  to  recommend  him,  shall  be  promoted  to  some 
accountant- generalship,  and  shall  riot  in  the  spoils  of  the  people  he 
traduces,  as  it  were  to  crown  with  insult  the  severest  injuries.  This 
viceroy  selects  for  his  favourite  privy  councillor  some  learned  doctor, 
half  lawyer,  half  divine,  an  entire  brute,  distinguished  by  the 
unblushing  repetition  of  calumnies  against  the  Protestants.  This 
man  has  assei*ted  that  Protestants  are  perjurers  and  murdei-ers  in 
principle — that  they  keep  no  faith  with  papists,  but  hold  it  lawful 
and  meritorious  to  violate  every  engagement,  and  commit  every 
atrocity  towards  any  person  who  happens  to  differ  with  Protestants 
in  religious  belief.  This  man  raves  thus,  in  public,  against  the 
Protestants,  and  has  turned  his  ravings  into  large  personal  emolu- 
ments. But  whilst  he  is  the  oracle  of  minor  bigots,  he  does  not 
believe  himself,  he  has  selected  for  the  partner  of  his  tenderest  joys, 
of  his  most  extatic  moments — he  has  chosen  for  the  intended  mother 
of  his  children,  for  the  sweetener  and  solace  of  his  every  care,  a 
Protestant,  gentlemen  of  the  jury, 

"  Next  to  the  vile  instruments  of  bigotry,  his  accountant-general 
and  privy  councillor,  we  will  place  his  acts.  The  Protestants  of 
Portugal  shall  be  exposed  to  insult  and  slaughter  ;  an  Orange  party — 
a  party  of  popish  Orangemen,  shall  be  supposed  to  exist ;  they  shall 
have  liberty  to  slaughter  the  unarmed  and  defenceless  Protestants,  and 
as  they  sit  peaceably  at  their  fire-sides.  They  shall  be  let  loose  in  some 
Portuguese  district,  called  Monaghan ;  they  shall  cover  the  streets  of 
some  Portuguese  town  of  Belfast  with  human  gore  ;  and  in  the 
metropolis  of  Lisbon,  the  Protestant  widow  shall  have  her  harmless 
child  murdered  in  the  noon  day,  and  his  blood  shall  have  flowed 
unrequited,  because  his  assassin  was  very  loyal  when  he  was  drunk, 
and  had  an  irresistible  propensity  to  signalise  his  loyalty  by  killing 
Protestants.  Behold,  gentlemen,  this  viceroy  depriving  of  command, 
and  staying  the  promotion  of,  every  military  man  who  shall  dare  to 
think  Protestants  men,  or  who  shall  presume  to  suggest  that  they 
ought  not  to  be  prosecuted.  Behold  this  viceroy  promoting  and 
rewarding  the  men  who  insulted  and  attempted  to  degrade  the 
first  of  your  Protestant  nobility.  Behold  him  in  public,  the  man  I 
have  described. 

2   M 


530  MEMOUl     AND    SPEECHES    OF 

"  In  his  personal  concerns  he  i-eceives  an  enormous  revenue  from 
the  people  he  thus  misgoverns.  See  in  his  management  of  that 
revenue  a  parsimony  at  which  even  his  enemies  blush.  See  the 
paltry  sum  of  a  single  joe  refused  to  any  Protestant  charity,  whilst  his 
bounty  is  unknown  even  at  the  popish  institutions  for  benevolent 
purposes.  See  the  most  wasteful  expenditure  of  the  public  money — 
every  job  patronised — every  profligacy  encouraged.  See  the  resources 
of  Portugal  diminished.  See  her  discords  and  her  internal  feuds  in- 
creased. And,  lastly,  behold  the  course  of  justice  perverted  and 
corrupted. 

"  It  is  thus,  gentlemen,  the  Protestant  Portuguese  seek  to  obtain 
relief  by  humble  petition  and  supplication.  There  can  be  no  crime 
surely  for  a  Protestant  oppressed,  because  he  follows  a  religion  which 
is,  in  his  opinion,  true,  to  endeavour  to  obtain  relief  by  mildly  repre- 
senting to  his  popish  oppressors,  that  it  is  the  right  of  every  man  to 
worship  the  Deity  according  to  the  dictates  of  his  own  conscience  ; 
to  state  x'espectfully  to  the  governing  powers  that  it  is  unjust,  and 
may  be  highly  impolitic  to  punish  men,  merely  because  they  do  not 
profess  popery,  which  they  do  not  believe ;  and  to  submit,  with  all 
humility,  that  to  lay  the  burdens  of  the  state  equally,  and  distribute 
its  benefits  partially,  is  not  justice,  but,  although  sanctioned  by  the 
pretence  of  religious  zeal,  is,  in  truth,  iniquity,  and  palpably  criminal. 
Well,  gentlemen,  for  daring  thus  to  remonstrate,  the  Protestants  are 
persecuted.  The  first  step  in  the  persecution  is  to  pei'vert  the  plain 
meaning  of  the  Portuguese  language,  and  a  law  prohibiting  any 
disguise  in  apparel,  shall  be  applied  to  the  ordinary  dress  of  the 
individual ;  it  reminds  one  of  pretence  and  purpose.  To  carry  on 
these  persecutions,  the  viceroy  chooses  for  his  first  inquisitor  the 
descendant  of  some  popish  refugee — some  man  with  an  hereditary 
hatred  to  Protestants;  he  is  not  the  son  of  an  Irishman,  this 
refugee  inquisitor — no,  for  the  fact  is  notorious,  that  the  Irish 
refugee  papists  were  ever  distinguished  for  their  liberality,  as  well 
as  for  their  gallantry  in  the  field  and  talent  in  the  cabinet.  This 
inquisitor  shall  be,  gentlemen,  a  descendant  from  one  of  those 
English  papists,  who  was  the  dupe  or  contriver  of  the  Gunpowder 
Plot !  With  such  a  chief  inquisitor,  can  you  conceive  any  thing  more 
calculated  to  rouse  you  to  agony  than  the  solemn  mockery  of  your 
trial.  This  chief  inquisitor  begins  by  influencing  the  judges  out  of 
court ;  he  proceeds  to  inquire  out  fit  men  for  his  interior  tribunal, 
which,  for  brevity,  wc  will  call  a  jury.     He   selects  his  juries  from 


DANIEL    o'CONNELL,    ESQ.,    M.P.  531 

the  most  violent  of  the  popish  Orangemen  of  the  city,  and  procures  a 
conviction  against  law  and  common  sense,  and  without  evidence. 
Have  you  followed  me,  gentlemen  ?  Do  you  enter  into  the  feelings 
of  Protestants  thus  insulted,  thus  oppressed,  thus  persecuted — their 
enemies  and  traducers  promoted,  and  encouraged,  and  richly  rewarded 
— their  friends  discountenanced  and  displaced — their  persons  unpro- 
tected, and  their  characters  assailed  by  hired  calumniators — their 
blood  shed  with  impunity — their  revenues  parsimoniously  spared 
to  accumulate  for  the  individual,  wastefuUy  squandered  for  the 
state — the  emblems  of  discord,  the  war-ciy  of  disunion,  sanctioned 
by  the  highest  authority,  and  Justice  herself  converted  from  an  im- 
partial arbitrator  into  a  frightful  partisan  ? 

"  Yes,  gentlemen,  place  yourselves  as  Protestants  under  such  a 
"  persecution.  Behold  befoi'e  you  this  chief  inquisitor,  with  his  pre- 
judiced tribunal — this  gambler,  with  a  loaded  die;  and  now  say  what 
are  your  feelings — what  are  your  sensations  of  disgust,  abhorrence, 
affright  ?  But  if  at  such  a  moment  some  ardent  and  enthusiastic  • 
papist,  regardless  of  his  interests,  and  roused  by  the  crimes  that  were 
thus  committed  against  you,  should  describe,  in  measured,  and 
cautious,  and  cold  language,  scenes  of  oppression  and  iniquity — if  he 
were  to  describe  them,  not  as  I  have  done,  but  in  feeble  and  mild 
language,  and  simply  state  the  facts  for  your  benefit  and  the  instruc- 
tion of  the  public — if  this  liberal  papist,  for  this,  were  dragged  to  the 
Inquisition,  as  for  a  crime,  and  menaced  with  a  dungeon  for  years, 
good  and  gracious  God !  how  would  you  revolt  at  and  abominate  the 
men  who  could  consign  him  to  that  dungeon  !  With  what  an  eye  of 
contempt,  and  hatred,  and  despair,  would  you  not  look  at  the  packed 
and  profligate  tribunal,  which  could  direct  punishment  against  him 
who  deserved  rewards  !  "What  pity  would  you  not  feel  for  the 
advocate  who  heavily,  and  without  hope,  laboured  in  his  defence ! 
and  with  what  agonized  and  frenzied  despair  would  you  not  look  to 
the  future  destinies  of  a  land  in  which  perjury  was  organized,  and 
from  which  humanity  and  justice  had  been  for  ever  banished ! 

"  With  this  picture  of  yourselves  in  Portugal,  come  home  to  us  in 
Ireland,  say  is  that  a  crime,  when  applied  to  Protestants,  which  is 
a  virtue  and  a  merit  when  applied  to  papists  ?  Behold  how  we  suffer 
here  ;  and  then  reflect,  that  it  is  principally  by  reason  of  your  preju- 
dices against  us  that  the  Attorney-General  hopes  for  your  verdict. 
The  good  man  has  talked  of  liis  impartiality  ;  he  will  suppress,  he 
says,  the  licentiousness  of  the  Press.     I  have,  I  hope,  shown  you  the 


532  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES    OF 

right  of  my  client  to  discuss  the  public  subjects  which  he  has  discussed 
in  the  manner  they  are  treated  of  in  the  publication  before  you,  yet 
he  is  prosecuted.  Let  me  read  for  you  a  paragraph  which  the 
Attorney- General  has  not  prosecuted — which  he  has  refused  to  pro- 
secute :  . 
"'Ballybay,  July  4,  1813. 

"  *  A  meeting  of  the  Orange  lodges  was  agreed  on,  in  consequence 
of  the  manner  in  which  the  Catholics  wished  to  have  persecuted  the 
loyalists  in  this  county  last  year,  ivhen  they  even  murdered  some  of 
them  for  no  other  reason  than  their  being  yeomen  and  Protestants' 

"  And,  again — 

'* '  It  was  at  Ballybay  that  the  Catholics  murdered  one  Hughes,  a 
yeoman  serjeant,  for  being  a  Protestant,  as  was  given  in  evidence  at 
the  assizes  by  a  Catholic  witness.' 

"  I  have  read  this  passage  from  the  Hibernian  Journal  of  the  7th 
of  this  month.  I  know  not  whether  you  can  hear,  unmoved,  a 
paragraph  which  makes  my  blood  boil  to  read ;  but  I  shall  only  tell 
you,  that  the  Attorney- General  refused  to  prosecute  this  libeller. 
Gentlemen,  there  have  been  several  murders  committed  in  the  county 
of  Monaghan,  in  which  Ballybay  lies.  The  persons  killed  happened 
to  be  Roman  Catholics  ;  their  murderers  are  Orangemen.  Several  of 
the  persons  accused  of  these  murders  are  to  be  tried  at  the  ensuing 
assizes.  The  agent  applied  to  me  personally,  with  this  newspaper ; 
he  stated  that  the  obvious  intention  was  to  create  a  prejudice  upon 
the  approaching  trials  favourable  to  the  murderers,  and  against  the 
prosecutors.  He  stated  what  you — even  you — will  easily  believe, 
that  there  never  was  a  falsehood  more  flagitiously  destitute  of  truth 
than  the  entire  paragraph.  I  advised  him,  gentlemen,  to  wait  on  the 
Attorney- General  in  the  most  respectful  manner  possible,  to  show 
him  this  paragraph,  then  to  request  to  be  allowed  to  satisfy  him  as  to 
the  utter  falsehood  of  the  assertions  which  this  paragraph  contained, 
which  could  be  more  easily  done,  as  the  judges  who  went  that  circuit 
could  prove  part  of  it  to  be  false  ;  and  I  directed  him  to  entreat  that 
the  Attorney- General,  when  fully  satisfied  of  the  falsehood,  would 
prosecute  the  publisher  of  this,  which,  I  think,  I  may  call  an  atro- 
cious libel. 

"  Gentlemen,  the  Attorney- General  was  accordingly  waited  on  ; 
he  was  respectfully  requested  to  prosecute  upon  the  terms  of  having 
tliQ  falsehood  of  these  assertions  first  proved  to  him.  I  need  not  tell 
you  he  refused.     These  are  not  the  libellers  he  prosecutes.     Gentle- 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL,   ESQ.,   M.P.  533 

men,  this  not  being  a  libel  on  any  individual,  no  private  individual 
can  prosecute  for  it ;  and  the  Attorney-General  turns  his  Press 
loose  on  the  Catholics  of  the  county  of  Monaghan,  whilst  he  viru- 
lently assails  Mr.  Magee  for  what  must  be  admitted  to  be  com- 
paratively mild  and  inoffensive. 

"  No,  gentlemen,  he  does  not  prosecute  this  libel.  On  the  con- 
trary, this  paper  is  paid  enormous  sums  of  the  public  money.  There 
are  no  less  than  five  proclamations  in  the  paper  containing  this 
libel ;  and,  it  was  proved  in  my  presence,  in  a  court  of  justice,  that, 
besides  the  proclamations  and  public  advertisements,  the  two  pro- 
prietors of  the  paper  had  each  a  pension  of  £400  per  annum,  for 
supporting  government,  as  it  was  called.  Since  that  period  one  of 
those  proprietors  has  got  an  office  worth,  at  least,  £800  a  year ; 
and  the  son  of  the  other,  a  place  of  upwards  of  £400  per  annum : 
so  that,  as  it  is  likely  that  the  original  pensions  continue,  here  may 
be  an  annual  income  of  £2,000  paid  for  this  paper,  besides  the 
thousands  of  pounds  annually,  which  the  insertion  of  the  pro- 
clamations and  public  advertisements  cost.  It  is  a  paper  of  the  very 
lowest  and  most  paltry  scale  of  talent,  and  its  circulation  is,  for- 
tunately, very  limited  ;  but  it  receives  several  thousands  of  pounds 
of  the  money  of  the  men  whom  it  foully  and  falsely  calumniates. 

"  "Would  I  could  see  the  man  who  pays  this  proclamation  money 
and  these  pensions  at  the  castle.  [Here  Mr.  O'Connell  turned  round 
to  where  Mr.  Peele*  sat.J  Would  I  could  see  the  man  who,  against 
the  fact,  asserted  that  the  proclamations  were  inserted  in  all  the  papers, 
save  in  those  whose  proprietors  were  convicted  of  a  libel.  I  would  ask 
him  whether  this  be  a  paper  that  ought  to  receive  the  money  of  the 
Irish  people  ? — whether  this  be  the  legitimate  use  of  the  public 
purse?  And  when  you  find  this  calumniator  salaried  and  rewarded, 
where  is  the  impartiality,  the  justice,  or  even  the  decency  of  prose- 
cuting Mr.  Magee  for  a  libel,  merely  because  he  has  not  praised 
public  men,  and  has  discussed  public  affairs  in  the  spirit  of  freedom 
and  of  the  constitution  ?  Contrast  the  situation  of  Mr.  Magee  with 
the  proprietor  of  the  Hibernian  Journal ;  the  one  is  prosecuted  with 
all  the  weight  and  influence  of  the  crown,  the  other  pensioned  by  the 
ministers  of  the  crown ;  the  one  dragged  to  your  bar  for  the  sober 
discussion  of  political  topics,  the  other  hired  to  disseminate  the 
most  horrid  calumnies  !     Let  the  Attorney-General  now  boast  of  his 

•  Chief  Secretary  to  the  Lord  Lieutcuaut. 


534  MEMOIR    AND    SPEECHES,    &C. 

impartiality  ;  can  you  credit  him  on  your  "oaths  ?  Let  him  talk  of 
his  veneration  for  the  liberty  of  the  Press  ;  can  you  believe  him  in 
your  consciences  ?  Let  him  call  the  Press  the  protection  of  the 
people  against  the  government.  Yes,  gentlemen,  believe  him  when 
he  says  so.  Let  the  Press  be  the  protection  of  the  people  ;  he 
admits  that  it  ought  to  be  so.  Will  you  find  a  verdict  for  him, 
that  shall  contradict  the  only  assertion  upon  which  he  and  I,  how- 
ever, are  both  agreed  ? 

**  Gentlemen,  the  Attorney-General  is  bound  by  this  admission  ; 
it  is  part  of  his  case,  and  he  is  the  prosecutor  here  ;  it  is  a  part  of  the 
evidence  before  you,  for  he  is  the  prosecutor.  Then,  gentlemen,  it  is 
your  duty  to  act  upon  that  evidence,  and  to  allow  the  Press  to 
afford  some  protection  to  the  people. 

"  Is  there  amongst  you  any  one  friend  to  freedom  ?  Is  there  amongst 
you  one  man,  who  esteems  equal  and  impartial  justice,  who  values 
the  people's  rights  as  the  foundation  of  private  happiness,  and  who 
considers  life  as  no  boon  without  liberty  ?  Is  there  amongst  you  one 
friend  to  the  constitution — one  man  who  hates  oppression  ?  If  there 
be,  Mr.  Magee  appeals  to  his  kindred  mind,  and  confidently  expects 
an  acquittal. 

"  There  are  amongst  you  men  of  great  religious  zeal — of  much 
public  piety.  Are  you  sincere  ?  Do  you  believe  what  you  profess  ? 
With  all  this  zeal — with  all  this  piety,  is  there  any  conscience 
amongst  you  ?  /*  there  any  terror  of  violating  your  oaths  ?  Be  ye 
hypocrites,  or  does  genuine  religion  inspire  ye  ?  If  you  be  sincere — 
if  you  have  conscience — if  your  oaths  can  control  your  interests, 
then  Mr.  Magee  confidently  expects  an  acquittal. 

"  If  amongst  you  there  be  cherished  one  ray  of  pure  religion — if 
amongst  you  there  glow  a  single  spai'k  of  liberty — if  I  have  alarmed 
religion,  or  roused  the  spirit  of  freedom  in  one  breast  amongst  you, 

Mr.  Magee  is  safe,  and  his  country  is  served  ;  but  if  there  be  none 

if  you  be  slaves  and  hypocrites,  he  will  await  your  verdict,  and 
despise  it." 

And  slaves,  hypocrites,  and  bigots  they  proved  themselves, 
by  finding  a  verdict  for  the  crown. 


APPENDIX. 


One  circumstance  of  the  anecdote  we  have  given  of  Mr.  O'ConneU's 
rencontre  with  the  unfortunate  Messrs.  John  and  Henry  Sheares  in 
the  Dover  packet-boat,  in  January,  1793,  has  been,  accidentally, 
omitted. 

The  Messrs.  Sheares,  when  speaking  of  their  having  attended 
the  execution  of  Louis  XVI.,  displayed  a  bloody  handkerchief,  being 
one  they  had  themselves  imbrued  in  the  blood  of  the  slaughtered 
monarch. 

Accident  has  also  led  to  the  omission  of  a  few  other  matters, 
amongst  which  is  one  incident  of  the  year  1799,  when  Mr.  O'Connell 
had  a  narrow  escape  of  his  life. 

Returning  one  evening,  in  the  earlier  part  of  that  year,  fi'om 
presiding  as  master  over  a  meeting  of  a  Masonic  lodge,*  held  in 
Bride-street,  his  attention  was  attracted  by  a  large  fire  which  had 
broken  out  in  a  timber  yard,  at  the  corner  of  Stephen-street.  An 
immense  ci'owd  had  collected,  and  a  party  of  military  (or  rather  of 
English  militia — ^the  Staffordshire  regiment) — were  there  to  keep 
the  peace,  under  the  orders  of  one  of  the  city  sheriffs,  Mr.  Macready, 
father  of  the  celebrated  tragedian  of  that  name.  He  had  several 
men  employed  to  remove  the  pavement  that  water  might  be  got  from 
the  street  pipe  to  supply  the  engines  ;  but  they  worked  so  lazily 
that  there  was  considerable  delay  in  procui*ing  any. 

With  the  wild  spirits  of  youth,  Mr.  O'ConneU  forced  his  way 
through  the  crowd  into  the  enclosed  space  where  the  men  were 
working,  and  pushing  one  of  them  roughly  aside,  snatched  the  pick- 
axe from  his  hands,  and  set  vigorously  about  to  work  himself.  The 
crowd  cheered  him  lustily,  and,  as  he  himself  describes  it,  he  was  so 

*  He  liae  long  since  publicly  disconnected  himself  with  Freemasonry. 


536  APPENDIX. 

delighted  with  their  cheers  that  he  went  on,  utterly  regardless  of  the 
directions  and  orders  the  sheriflf  was  giving  him,  and  bid  fair 
to  unpave  the  whole  street  before  stopping. 

Sheriff  Macready,  finding  all  his  words  in  vain,  angrily  ordered  the 
soldiers  to  stop  him ;  and  one  of  them  instantly  set  about  doing  so  in 
the  most  effectual  way,  by  a  direct  charge  with  his  bayonet.  For- 
tunately, the  weapon,  which  came  with  the  man's  full  force,  struck 
Mr.  O'Connell's  watch,  else,  on  that  spot  his  agitation  had  ended  for 
ever.  Of  course,  no  second  learning  of  that  kind  was  needed,  and  he 
made  his  escape  as  fast  as  possible. 

lilr.  O'Connell  has  never  been  before  the  public  as  a  steward  of  a 
horse  race,  a  capacity,  however,  which  it  once  fell  to  his  lot  to  fill, 
and  in  which  he  drew  up  the  "  article"  given  in  the  following 
extract  from  the  Sporting  Magazine,  number  for  July,  1 805,  p.  223. 

"  SINGULAE  RACE. 

"  In  the  Irish  Racing  Calendar  of  June  22,  we  observe  the  follow- 
ing very  singular  terms  for  a  race,  on  Thursday,  the  29th  August 
next : — 

" '  Sixty  pounds,  given  by  the  gentlemen  of  the  profession  of  the 
law  of  the  county  of  Kerry — for  all  horses  &c.,  carrying  nine  stone. 

" '  Four-mile  heats. 

" '  Horses,  &c.,  starting  for  this  plate  must  be  bona  fide  the  pro- 
perty of  a  gentleman  who  shall  have,  prior  to  the  first  day  of  the 
meeting,  actually  expended,  in  fair  adverse  litigation,  the  sum  of  two 
hundred  pounds. 

"  '  Horses,  &c.,  of  all  persons  who  have  so  expended  one  thousand 
pounds,  allowed  three  lbs. 

" '  All  horses,  &c.,  to  be  qualified  upon  the  honour  of  an  attorney, 
if  required  by  the  stewards. 

"  '  As  the  plate  is  intended  solely  for  amateurs,  no  practising  pro- 
fessional gentleman  will  be  allowed  to  start  a  horse.' " 

The  race  thus  announced  actually  took  place  at  the  time  indicated. 
Three  horses  started  ;  and,  after  a  well-contested  race,  the  plate  was 
won  by  a  horse  belonging  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Dennis,  a  Protestant 
clergyman  of  the  county  Wicklow,  who  qualified  for  the  allowance  of 
three  lbs.,  mentioned  in  the  article,  by  the  fact  of  having  expended 
considerably  more  than  one  thousand  pounds  in  litigation. 


APPENDIX.  537 

PADDY     TO     NEDDY. 


THE  BAR  AND  THE  BARON, 


"  '  And  we  also  have  our  Baron.' 

"  As  sure  as  a  gun,  from  the  Bann  to  the  Carrou, 

They  sliall  hear  of  the  row  'twixt  the  Bar  and  the  Baron ! 

I've  sworn  it,  Neddy,  and  can  it  be  treason 

To  jingle  in  rhyme,  what  has  nothing  of  reason? 

And,  faith,  'tis  so  comic,  'twere  surely  a  pity 

To  deny  it  the  meed  of  a  fugitive  ditty. 

The  Baron — but  he's  been  so  often  in  prose, 

'Twere  needless  to  tell  you  what  ev'ri/  one  knows. 

And  what  ev'ry  one,  too,  in  the  land  will  remember, 

From  New-year's  day  down  to  the  last  of  December — 

Suffice  it  to  say  he's  the  law's  purest  pillar. 

And,  tho'  sprung  from  a  worm,  detests  a  distiller ! 

The  beginning  of  winter,  his  highness,  quite  frisky, 

Commenc'd  a  campaign  'gainst  the  sellers  of  whiskey, 

And  swore  by  his  valour,  he'd  settle  his  throne 

On  a  seat  of  a  still,  in  renown'd  Ennishow'n. 

Oh  !  I  wish  you  had  seen 

How  he  ravag'd  the  green, 

Down  rock  and  down  glen. 

With  his  battle-axe  men  ; 

The  Poteen-men 

Thought  again 
He'd  finish'd  their  job. 

And  the  pot-ale 

Grew  pale 
At  the  sight  of  his  nob. 
Full  many  can  tell  what  a  terrible  milling 
He  gave  them,  from  Longford,  all  thro'  Enniskillen. 

Some  blackletter  scavan 

Tried  to  stop  him  at  Cavan, 

But,  like  fat  in  the  fire. 

It  inflam'd  him  the  higher. 

And  he  seiz'd  the  diploma 

From  havock,  at  Oraagh  ! 
You  must  know  that  the  chief,  in  the  height  of  his  fury, 
Campaigns  with  a  life-guard  he  christens  a  jury  ; 
And,  ere  he  assails  the  distillers  at  large, 
The  life-guard  is  sure  to  be  tried  at  a  charge ; 


538  APPENDIX. 

So  that  many  suppose,  sliould  liis  foes  grow  mueli  larger, 

That  he'll  rival  the  great  metropolitan  charger  ! ! ! 

At  Oraagh,  when  charging,  they  say  that  a  Moor 

(No  Christian  would  venture  to  do  it  I'm  sure) 

Attempted  to  give  the  proud  hero  a  knock. 

Who,  with  dignity,  said  '  Faugh,  my  feelings  you  shock  ; 

So  be  off,  you  spalpeen,  or  you'll  lie  in  the  dock.' 

Have  you  e'er  seen  a  cur  sneaking  off  in  a  dump, 

When  a  scavenger  gave  him  a  kick  in  the  rump. 

Just  so  fled  the  hapless,  unfortunate  elf, 

Nor  till  out  in  the  air,  did  he  come  to  himself ; 

Then  cried  he,  '  I'll  go  tell  it  as  I'm  a  sinner, 

To  my  friends,  who  are  now  at  their  punch,  after  dinner.' 

He  told  them  his  tale,  but  the  moment  he  spoke, 

The  sweet  Ennishow'n  lost  the  smell  of  its  smoke !  I ! 

For  a  time  all  was  mute — but  snug  Orator  Smyly 

Got  on  his  legs,  and  declar'd  very  dryly, 

'  For  his  part,  he'd  never  consent  to  make  war  on 

Such  a  sweet-temper'd,  popular,  patriot  Baron.' 

The  example  once  set,  was  soon  followed  by  Torrens, 

Who  exclaim'd,  '  Such  a  thought  had  liis  perfect  abhorrence.' 

All  was  silence  again,  when,  at  last,  little  Macklyn 

Announc'd  that  '  he'd  give  that  same  Baron  a  hackling.' 

The  matter  here  rested,  but  yet,  I  am  sure. 

Some  censur'd  the  Baron,  and  pitied  the  Moor  ; 

Unwither'd  by  age — uncorrupted  by  art. 

You  must  see  on  their  cheek  the  rich  glow  of  their  heart — 

Misguid'd  young  noodles !  who  never  could  credit, 

That  virtue  was  folly,  tho'  sergeants  had  said  it ; 

But,  no  matter — they'll  see,  ere  they  go  very  far, 

That's  not  the  best  way  to  go  on  at  the  Bar — 

Tho'  now  teU  it  to  them,  if  I  err,  may  a  murrain 

Fall  on  me  at  once  I  they'll  straight  instance  you — Curran  ; 

As  if  all  men,  like  Curran,  could  soar  into  place. 

With  a  patent  direct  from  the  Deity's  grace. 

When  the  Moor  and  his  friends  had  thus  grievously  differ'd. 

The  Baron  and  guards  set  off  charging  for  Lifford  ; 

But  the  Moor  well  determin'd  that  he'd  rule  the  roast. 

Sent  the  whole  of  the  row  to  the  next  Evening  Post ! ! ! 

So  that  when  they  had  met  in  their  general  hall. 

The  whole  pack  were  in  print — Baron,  jury  and  all ! ! ! 

And  many  suppos'd,  that  as  things  went  so  far. 

Nothing  less  could  be  done  than  assemble  the  Bar ; 

While  others  exclaim'd,  might  they  die  and  be  curst. 

If  they'd  meet — until  the  Nor- Westers  met  first ; 

And,  faith,  the  Nor- Westers  thought  it  nothing  but  fudge 

In  them  for  to  meet  in  the  teeth  of  a  judge  ! 


APPENDIX.  539 

Besides,  '  'twas  too  late,  and  they  thought  that  the  Moor 

Should  have  settled  the  matter  at  Omagh  before.' 

'  By  jingo,'  said  he,  *  you  were  after  your  lunch. 

When  I  laid  the  whole  story  before  you  at  punch  ; 

But  meet  as  you  choose,  you're  beyond  my  dominion, 

And  now  must  abide  by  the  public  opinion.' 

Indeed  and  indeed,  you'd  have  pitied  their  cases, 

Dear  Neddy,  if  you  could  have  witness'd  their  faces ; 

And  'twas  grievous  enough,  upon  them  I  confess. 

To  be  kick'd  into  justice  by  means  of  the  Press ! 

Meet,  however,  they  did,  in  the  Rolls  Court,  at  five, 

But,  faith,  ev'ry  man  seem'd  more  dead  than  alive ; 

They  all  took  their  seats — little  Randle  was  there, 

With  his  pen  and  ink-horn,  just  under  the  Chair ! 

He  had  settled  his  wig  like  a  little  recorder, 

When  somebody  rose  to  a  question  of  order. 

'  The  Press,  sir,'  said  he,  'has  thought  proper  of  late. 

To  take  on  itself  such  abundance  of  state, 

That  if  peasant  or  peer  does  but  one  single  turn  ill, 

Its  sure  to  get  into  some  damnable  journal ! 

Now,  I  trust,  that  you'll  think — (and  they  all  cry'd  "hear  Neddy") 

We  have  suffer'd  enough  from  its  malice  already ; 

I'll  say  nothing  more,  but  as  sure  as  yoxi're  born,      ^ 

We'll  all  be  mark'd  out  as  the  objects  of  scorn,         >■ 

Unless  little  Randle  puts  up  the  ink-horn.'  * 

'  May  I  linger  my  life  in  remote  Innisfallen, 

If  I  see  any  motive  there's  for  it, '  says  Allen  ; 

'  If  we  do  as  we  ought,  and  we  should  not  do  less. 

What  have  we  to  fear  from  a  fifty-fold  Press  ? 

Do  nothing  in  secret — throw  open  your  door — 

I  wince  not — I  blench  not — my  conscience  is  pure.' 

Now,  perhaps,  Neddy,  you  tliink  I'm  turn'd  a  jester. 

In  giving  such  sentiments  to  a  Nor- Wester ; 

But  there's  not  in  creation  from  centre  to  pole, 

Than  Allen  a  richer  example  of  soul. 

Let  the  Sun  make  a  search  o'er  the  surface  of  nature. 

He'll  grow  dim  ere  discover  an  honester  creature  ! 

But  the  speaker  and  sentiment  soon  were  put  down. 

And  poor  Allen  encounter 'd  a  general  frown. 

Now  the  secret  insur'd — all  was  silence  around, 

And  the  mug  of  each  nob  wore  an  empty  profound. 

When  up  got  one,  lauded  the  Baron  most  highly. 

You  may  guess  it  was g,  or ,  or  Smyly, 

A  rabble  of  cyphers  we  meet  ev'ry  hour. 
Quite  ready  to  swell  out  the  numbers  of  power  ; 
Men,  in  whose  calculation,  servility's  spirit ! 
And  meanness  atones  for  the  absence  of  merit. 


540  APPENDIX. 

Just  Heav'n !  how  I  smile  at  the  spaniel-like  slave, 

Who  fawns  for  his  crumb  at  the  foot  of  a  knave. 

Believe  me.  my  Neddy,  that  honesty  sold, 

Has  a  sorry  exchange  in  Golconda's  of  gold. 

And  the  poor  little  spot  we  must  come  to  at  last. 

When  life  has  gone  by  like  the  song  of  the  blast, 

Will  look  greener  on  earth,  ay,  and  better  from  heaven, 

Than  the  pile  from  high-sounding  depravity  given. 

Besides,  but  examine  the  lover  of  pelf. 

You'll  see  that  he's  often  asham'd  of  himself ; 

Let  him  toil  in  the  palace,  or  fly  to  the  wild  wood. 

He's  pursu'd  and  reproach'd  by  the  feel  of  his  childhood  ; 

Like  the  blush  of  a  hectic,  it  comes  o'er  his  frame. 

To  cover  his  innate  disorder  with  shame ! 

Thus  the  Baron's  supporter  declar'd  that  the  tone, 

Which  he  gave  to  the  anthem,  was  none  of  his  own ; 

That  he  spoke  it,  forsooth,  by  a  mighty  permission  ; 

That  he  had  it,  in  fact,  as  a  kind  of  commission — 

While  others  were  musing,  and  scratching  their  nob. 

To  think  who  could  give  him  so  comic  a  job, 

I  could  think  but  of  one  'bove  the  regions  of  Charon, 

And  I  guess'd  him,  by  gob,  for  that  one  was — the  Baron  ! ! 

The  business  thus  done,  they  broke  up  in  a  minute, 

Tho'  faith,  'twas  a  bull  to  have  secrecy  in  it ; 

For  they  swore  una  voce,  both  mighty  and  small. 

That  they'd  do  what  they'd  met  for — just  nothing  at  all! 

The  farce  of  the  meeting  thus  being  gone  through. 

The  Moor  and  his  friends  look'd  exceedingly  blue ; 

And  each  man  exclaimed,  whether  noodle  or  nester, 

'  I  am  glad  in  my  heart  I  am  not  a  Nor- Wester. ' 

Poor  Allen  declared,  that  he  feared  all  their  trouble. 

Would  prove  in  the  end  nothing  more  than  a  bubble ; 

'  They  should  summon  a  meeting  unlike  the  Nor- West, 

Where  innocence  wrong'd  would  be  more  than  a  jest ; 

'Twas  in  want  of  despatch  that  the  principal  sin  lay. 

And  the  paper  once  signed  should  be  handed  to  Finlay.' 

The  paper  once  drawn  was  soon  ready  for  signing, 

Which  all  were  convinc'd  none  would  tliink  of  declining ; 

For  how  could  they  brand  the  Nor-Westers  with  shame. 

And  in  the  same  circumstance  _;'ms<  do  the  same  ? 

The  first  thing  he  went  to  was  Castle-hack  Swift, 

In  the  vain  expectation  of  getting  a  lift. 

But  S — -t  who  despises  the  semblance  of  grace, 

Declar'd  in  a  moment  that  he  had  a  place ! 

He  went  up  to  another — '  Sir,  you'll  not  reject  it. 

As  you  have  no  place' — '  But,  dear  sir,  I — expect  it !' 

However,  one  told  him  he'd  put  his  name  down, 

If  the  thing  was  set  going  but  by  a  silk  gown  ! 


APPENDIX.  541 

'  O  ho,  then,'  said  Finlay,  '  no  longer  I'm  fooled 
I  can  get  that  at  once  by  just  going  to  Gould, 
For  he  has  been  speeching  for  hours  on  the  floor, 

On  the  injury  done  to  the  innocent  Moor 

He'd  a  wife  and  five  children  in  North  Merrion-square, 
And  he'd  sacrifice  all — for  the  good  of  the  Bar.' 

You  must  know  little  Tom 

At  the  moment  had  come, 
Just  out  to  tlie  hall  for  a  little  relief. 

From  his  usual  sport 

In  the  Common  Pleas  Court, 
A  good  humour 'd  row  with  the  black  letter  Chief — 

He  was  vapouring 

And  capering. 

And  looking  quite  big. 

And  blinking  and  sinking 

'  But  he  had  some  gig.' 
Finlay  went  up  in  the  midst  of  the  vapour, 
And  handed  our  hero  the  unanimous  paper. 
'  You  mean,  I  suppose  sir,'  said  he,  '  I  should  sign  it, 
Believe  me,  my  friend,  I  don't  mean  to  decline  it ; 
But  take  my  advice' — and  he  gave  him  a  nudge — 
'  Try  first  if  you  can  get  it  done  by  a  judge.' — 
There  are  some  men,  I  own,  neither  vicious  nor  tainted 
Who  will  smile  at  the  ludicrous  meanness  I've  painted. 
In  myself,  the  first  impulse  is  certainly  laughter ; 
But,  alas  !  a  more  serious  sensation  comes  after. 
As  I  look  with  contempt  on  the  sad  passing  scene, 
Fond  memory  turns  to  the  days  that  have  been. 
When  none  but  the  brave,  the  high-minded,  the  free. 
Dare  call  thee  his  country — green  isle  of  the  sea ! 
Ah !  who  could  foresee  at  that  era  of  gold. 
When  thy  monarchs  were  pure,  and  thy  patriots  bold — 
When  thy  native  rang'd  free  o'er  his  ancestor's  field, 
And  the  shamrock  unwithering  glow'd  on  his  shield — 
Who  could  think  that  the  period  was  ever  to  come, 
When  the  land  of  the  brave  was  to  be  but  his  tomb  ? 
And  a  vampire  creation  should  spring  from  his  grave, 
A  mixture  of  tyrant,  and  traitor,  and  slave  ! 
It  is  meet,  it  is  meet,  that  the  miscreant  hand, 
Which  sold,  should  insult  thee,  unfortunate  land  ! 
But,  oh  !  is  it  meet,  a  liigh-minded  profession. 
Should  first  bow  its  neck  to  the  rod  of  oppression  ? 
Ye  Burghs  and  Duqueries — turn,  tiirn  away. 
Nor  blast  thy  pure  glance  with  the  curse  of  this  day, 
'Mid  the  sunshine  of  heaven,  thy  spirits  of  light. 
Would  weep  at  the  taitors  that  wither  my  sight. 


542  APPENDIX. 

The  time  is  no  more  when  the  patriot  mind, 

By  genius  exalted,  by  study  refined, 

Caught  its  lustre  direct  from  philosophy's  ray. 

And  pour'd  it  around  with  the  radiance  of  day. 

But,  alas !  these  were  times  when  our  green  moimtain  isle 

Keceiv'd  and  return'd  sweet  liberty's  smile, 

When  like  God's  sacred  ark,  in  the  midst  of  the  flood, 

A  heaven-built  temple,  sublimely  she  stood, 

The  ocean  wave  shielding  her  base  with  its  might, 

WhUe  her  summit  was  lost  in  the  realms  of  light ! 

Oh,  curse  on  the  sin  that  polluted  our  shrine, 

And  brought  on  our  temple  the  vengeance  divine. 

Come,  pilgrim,  with  me,  let  us  tramp  with  disgust 

On  the  loathsome  creation  that  crawls  o'er  its  dust — 

A  nameless  and  shameless  contemptible  race, 

For  notice  too  mean,  if  they  were  not  so  base, 

Boasting  as  knowledge  a  dirty  chicane,  ^ 

Of  virtue  afraid,  of  servility  vain  C 

With  no  passion  but  envy,  no  motive  but  gain !  3 


But  let  them  pass  on — faith  in  this  disquisition, 

I  had  almost  forgotten  our  poor  requisition  ; 

Forgive  me — no  more  in  the  abstract  I'll  deal. 

But  by  heavens,  I'll  hang  on  a  gibbet  of  steel. 

Be  him  old,  be  him  young,  be  him  poor,  be  him  wealthy. 

Be  him  high,  be  him  low,  be  him  rotten  or  healthy. 

The  wretch  who  would  barter  his  conscience  for  pelf, 

And  sacrifice  every  thing  sacred,  to — self! 

I'll  do  it,  that  no  one  may  fancy  I'm  funning. 

As  sure  as — Tim  Driscoll's  allow'd  to  be  cunning — 

Or  as  sure  as  Lefroy  has  a  pastoral  face — 

Or  as  sure  as  Dick  Mauusell  works  hard  for  his  place. 

When  Finlay  thus  saw  his  poor  paper  rejected. 

By  men  who  nor  honour  nor  virtue  respected. 

He  went  up  to  one  who  had  made  no  profession, 

And  proffer'd  it — '  Sir,  is't  an  act  of  oppression?' 

'  Why,  yes,  in  my  mind,  it  comes  under  that  term  ; 

'Tis  th'  attempt  of  a  Baron  to  trample  a  worm  ;' 

'  Then  give  me  your  paper — I'll  sign  it  this  minute — 

'Tis  so  foul,  that  no  man  can  be  warranted  in  it.' 

God  help  you,  O'Connell,  if  your  not  a  knave, 

You'll  never  put  on  the  silk  badge  of  a  slave. 

No  longer  a  notion  of  office  pursue ; 

The  times  are  not  suited  to  such  men  as  you  ! 

The  paper,  thus  sanction'd,  was  soon  signed  by  twenty, 

A  number  which  Finlay  imagiu'd  was  plenty. 


APPENDIX.  543 

So  he  went  to  the  father  with  his  simple 'petition ; 

'  Sir,  you'll  summon  a  meeting  on  this  requisition.' 

Have  you  e'er  seen  an  old  wisn'd  wind-beaten  rat 

Pursued  thro'  a  granary  by  a  Tom-cat  ? 

But  the  hunt  was  quite  useless  —for  he  swore  damnation 

To  him  if  he'd  call  it — 'twould  hurt  his  vocation! 

'  Then  since  you  won't,  we'll  call  it  ourselves,  d'ye  see ;' 

So  they  call'd  it,  and^fix'd  it  for  Friday  at  three — 

But  the  BENCHERS  appointed  another  at  five, 

And  they  swore  the  poor  Moor  should  be  roasted  alive  !  I 

Yes,  they  swore  that  the  wretch  they  would  certainly  roast, 

For  daring  to  think  of  the  damn'd  Evening  Post ! ! ! 

But  who  are  the  benchers,  and  what  are  their  station  ? 

In  my  next  you  shall  hear  of  their  whole  generation. 

Suffice  it  to  say,  the  unfortunate  Moor, 

Though  frighten'd  at  Omagli,  was  now  frighten'd  more, 

And  his  friends  all  imagin'd  the  wide  world's  riches 

Wouldn't  keep  him  from  wreaking  it  all  on — his  breeches ! 

Says  he,  '  I'll  choose  counsel — to  them  I'll  be  pliant — 

If  I  plead  for  myself— I've  a  fool  for  my  client.' 

The  first  man  he  chose  was  a  battering  Ram — 

The  next  was  all  primness,  and  meek  as  a  Lamb — 

The  third  I  before  with  good  humour  described, 

Tho'  he's  brawling  and  bawling  that  he  has  been  gibed. 

And  swears  the'  he  can't  put  his  paw  upon  me. 

He'll  dismantle  the  Post,  and  dismember  Magee  ! 

Tace,  Tace,  good  Tom,  or  as  sure  as  you're  born. 

You  shall  own  till  your  death  I  have  hay  on  my  horn. 

With  blockheads  and  knaves  hold  no  further  communion, 

But  act  from  yourself  as  you  did  at  the  Union ; 

Believe  me,  one  feeling  I  would  not  offend, 

In  a  man  whom  his  country  has  known  for  a  friend, 

Who  has  spirit  superior  to  many  about  him, 

And  talents  so  various  that  no  one  can  doubt  'em. 

Do  but  act  from  your  heart,  let  what  will  betide, 

And,  '  by  God,'  I  shall  owe  it  with  pleasure  and  pride. 

But  thou  addle  egg  of  an  ill-omen'd  nest ! 

Thou  formal  confusion  !  tliou  methodised  jest ! 

Who  advis'd  him  to  do  it — I'll  have  thy  dull  noddle 

Hitch'd  into  a  song,  and  sung  out  through  the  Poddle, 

If  I  hear  but  one  efibrt  malignant  again, 

To  debase  to  thy  level  much  honester  men. — 

The  Moor's  counsel  now  on  his  business  debated. 

And  as  they  agreed  he  was  horribly  treated,  , 

They  advised  him  at  once  without  any  tautology. 

To  act  like  a  hero,  and — make  an  apology. 

But  who  are  the  benchers .'    Why,  faith,  'tis  a  question, 

Which,  before  I  can  answer,  requires  some  digestion. 


544  APPENDIX. 

They're  a  nondescript  body,  in  this  land  of  freedom, 
And,  to  tell  you  the  truth,  I  don't  think  that  we  need  'em ; 
But  no  doubt  all  their  powers  are  genuine  quite. 
For  they  own  to  possessing  them  in  their  own  right  ! 
They  can  call  you  before  them  for  looking  awry, 
And  can  punish  you,  too,  without  telling  you  why ! 
They  ask  you  no  questions,  and  no  one  denies, 
That's  the  way  to  be  certain  you'll  tell  them  no  lies. 
They'll  accuse  you,  'tis  true,  but  they'll  hear  no  defence — 
Now,  that's  constitutional,  ay,  and  it's  sense ; 
A  man  brought  before  them's  just  in  the  condition, 
Of  an  heretic  answering  the  Inquisition  ! 
But  all  must  allow,  that  their  Honors,  the  Benchers, 
May  do  tliis,  and  more,  too,  by  right  of — their  trenchers. 
Such  was  the  court,  that  unfortunate  Moob 
Was  called  for  his  error  to  answer  before. 
One  question  they  asked  him,  and  that  you  may  guess, 
W^,  whether  he  dared  to  resort  to  the  press! 
He  allowed  it,  and,  faith,  you'd  think  they'd  eat  him, 
As  they  thimdered  aloud  'twas  scandalum  magnatum. 
In  vain  did  he  urge  that  his  ignorant  youth. 
Might  stand  his  excuse  for  declaring  the  truth  ; 
They  fairly  exclaimed,  such  a  foolish  confession 
Was  very  unworthy — the  legal  profession. 
And  the  chief,  in  a  manner  impressive  and  clear. 
Bid  him  canter  away,  with  a  flea  in  his  ear ; 
You  may  doubt,  if  you  choose,  but  I'm  certain  and  sure, 
The  cliief  is  a  nob,  patriotic  and  pure. 
For  he  lately  has  given  his  absolute  veto, 
Against  eating  a  pie  or  an  apple  potato  ! ! ! 
And  that's  a  great  compliment  to  Johnny  Bull, 
Whose  life's  but  a  bore,  if  his  belly's  not  full. 
I  had  nearly  forgot,  there  was  one  in  the  hall, 
Who  couldn't  agree  in  their  notions  at  all ; 
Tho',  perhaps,  all  reflection  'tis  better  to  spare, 
And  tell  you,  at  once,  that  our  Curran  was  there ; 
For  with  us,  my  dear  Neddy,  that  name,  like  a  beacon, 
Shows  clearly  the  path  that  its  owner  has  taken. 
Alas  !  at  that  time,  when  the  wit  and  the  sage. 
Must  weep  o'er  the  wisdom  and  light  of  his  age ; 
When  thy  mirth,  and  thy  fire,  and  thy  honesty  o'er 
The  angels  will  lead  us  thy  presence  no  more  ; 
And  a  nation  in  silence  must  sigh  for  the  day. 
Which  has  torn  from  her  heart-strings  their  darling  away 
%  What  solacing  spirit  shall  comfort  us  then  ? 

What  hope  can  delude  with  thy  promise  again  ? 

It  is  not,  I  own  it,  to  every  one  given. 

To  seize,  with  thy  magic,  the  lightnings  of  heaven, 


APPENDIX.  545 

To  subject  the  passions  with  impulse  divine, 

To  command  with  a  cadence  the  charms  of  the  time. 

To  wield,  like  enchantment,  a  fairy  control. 

And  bind  with  an  amulet  body  and  soul. 

But,  oh  I  sure,  like  thee,  we  are  given  the  power, 

Indignant,  to  trample  the  slaves  of  the  hour. 

And  walk  in  the  path  thy  integrity  trod  ; 

Our  heart,  like  our  form,  the  image  of  God. 

When  Curran  departed,  the  Moor  was  beat  hollow. 

For  no  one  e'en  thought  of  attempting  to  follow  ; 

The  Moor,  they  all  argued,  was  nothing  to  them. 

And  tho'  ruin  ensued,  they  decreed  to  condemn. 

Ah  I  Neddy,  'tis  hard  in  this  ill-omened  hour, 

And  harder  again  in  this  prostrated  land 

For  innocence  wronged  to  contend  against  power. 

Or  raise,  save  in  sorrow,  its  manacled  hand ! 

Who  could  ever  expect  from  that  whimsical  court 

A  verdict  impartial,  or  upright  to  hear. 

Of  its  oracles  many  were  titled  in  sport. 

And  the  wreck  of  the  country  has  floated  them  there. 

'Tis  vain  to  expect  but  a  nation's  disgrace. 

When  traitorous  servitude  stands  at  the  helm 

When  forfeited  honor's  the  title  to  place 

And  perfidy's  paid  by  the  sale  of  the  realm ! 

Sure  he  is  a  fool  who  could  ever  suppose. 

That  he'd  obtain  justice,  tho'  e'en  for  a  minute. 

From  a  conclave  of  Benchers,  whom  every  one  knows, 

If  Justice  had  eyes,  she  would  never  put  in  it ! 

Play  a  tune  to  a  bear, 
And  he'll  surely  dance  awry. 

Yet,  ftiith,  'tis  as  fair 

To  hope  grace  from  a  bear. 
As  sense  from  a  body, 
Where,  like  sweeps  in  a  noddy. 

An  old  woman's  nudged  by  a  master  in  chancery. 

May  I  die  a  Nor- Wester, 
It  I  wouldn't  dig  all-day 

Sooner  than  stand 

At  the  bar  of  a  band, 
Where  a  six  clerk  and  coronet. 
Baron  and  baronet, 

A  noodle  and  Nestor 

A  judge  and  a  jester. 

Lie  all  a  pigging 

Just  like  piggen-riggen, 
Higgledy  piggledy  I 

2n 


546  APPENDIX. 

You'd  as  soon  see  a  corn-crake  humming  a  tune, 
Or  a  snipe 
Dance  a  hornpipe, 
By  the  light  of  the  moon, 
Or  a  frog  in  a  quinsy,  singing  Eileen-a-Roone. 
As  yet 
Such  a  set. 
By  any  means  brought 
By  a  jibe. 
Or  a  bribe, 
To  the  thought 
That  they  ought. 
But  though  I  suppose  that  you  are  not  daran'd  sick. 

Or  would  sooner  have  prose, 
Than  this  sweet  dithyrambic  ; 
Yet,  as  I'm  perplex'd, 

And  very  much  tired. 
We'll  defer  tiU  my  next 
The  names  that  conspired; 
And  by  Jove  if  the  muse 
Don't  her  office  refuse, 
I  can  tell  you  my  Neddy, 
If  they're  not  so  already, 
The  nobs  by  that  time  will  be  woefully  vex'd. 


"  THE  DINNER. 

"  In  order  to  prove,  dear  Neddy,  that  all  I  have  said  of  them  was  true,  the 
servile  Nor-Westers  (North-west  Bar)  have  asked  the  Baron  to  dine.  I  send  you 
the  account  of  the  dinner,  to  the  tune  that  was  made  for  my  own  wedding ;  and 
I  give  the  copyright  up  to  every  one  who  has  a  voice  to  sing  it : — 


' '  Oh,  never  fear 

But  you  shall  hear 
The  fun  of  the  Nor- West  dinner  O  1 

They  ate  their  fill. 

And  they  paid  their  bill — 
They  did,  as  I'm  a  sinner  O  I 

As  they  all  agreed 

Full  cheap  to  feed. 
And  cheaply  to  get  mellow  O  ! 

They  wouldn't  meet 

In  Dawson-street, 
But  they  dined  at  Portobello  O  ! 


APPENDIX.  547 


"  Old  Father  Joe, 

Like  a  plenipo,  •- 

He  sat  at  the  top  of  the  table  O ! 

Whilst  the  yoxmgest  man 

Sent  round  his  can 
At  the  foot,  while  he  was  able  O! 

The  Baron  was  there 

All  in  his  own  lair. 
He  left  his  wig  behind  him  O! 

And  the  man,  that  day, 

That  drank  Roscrea, 
It  would  be  hard  to  find  him  0 1 


"  Old  mumbling  Stokes, 

Like  John  a  Noakes, 
He  help'd  calf 's-head  to  D g  0 ! 

And  the  Baron  with  grace 

Cut  T 8  a  plaice. 

For  which  he  long  was  leering  0! 

R li n,  by  rule. 

Helped  gooseberry  fool, 
Which  Smyly  sipped  like  a  Cupid  0! 

And  D n,  small. 

Sung  Father  Paul, 
And  not  a  man  look'd  stupid  01 


"  When  the  clock  was  gone. 

And  dinner  done. 
The  father  fell  a  toasting  O  1 

And  the  waiter  enquired. 

If  any  desired. 
That  he'd  bring  the  Evening  Pott  in  ?  O ! 

At  the  very  name, 

A  shivering  came. 
All  over  each  Nor- Wester  0 1 

And  the  Baron's  head 

Was  so  turned  with  dread. 
That  he  gave  the  man  a  tester  O ! 

"  When  the  Baron  had  gone  in  his  jingle  away. 

The  glasses  were  marshalled  in  battle-array ; 

And  the  remnant  (who  looked  as  they'd  drink  it  in  blood) 

Gave  the  memory  of  William — the  great !  and  the  good  1 1 


548  APPENDIX. 

Hear  it,  ye  echoes ;  and,  oh  !  let  the  name 

Of  '  Nor-  Wester'  be  branded,  a  proverb  of  shame  ! 

Whom  conscience  impeaches  and  country  disowns, 

"Whose  prayers  become  crimes  'mid  the  Deity's  frowns. 

Should  honour  unnerved,  for  an  epithet  fester, 

Sum  all  baseness  in  one,  and  proclaim  him  '  Nur-Wester  !' 

When  their  folly  was  stingless,  their  passion  but  pelf — 

And  their  meanness  commenced  and  concluded  in  self! 

Tho'  moved  with  compassion  I  laughed  with  the  rest. 

Even  pity  grew  gay,  and  contempt  hud  its  jest. 

But  now  when  I  hear  their  impiety  fell. 

Endeavour  to  waken  the  warwhoops  of  hell 

And  wither  again  our  unfortunate  land 

With  the  bigoted  foreigners'  pitiless  band. 

Methinks  that  I  hear  the  red  blood  of  the  brave. 

And  the  souls  of  the  murdered,  exclaim  from  the  grave — 

'  Oh,  save  our  poor  orphan*— nor  suffer  again, 

Our  land  to  weep  blood  beneath  merciless  men  !* " 


The  following  is  the  document  drawn  up  by  Mr.  O'Connell,  and 
entitled — 

"  MR.  LALOR'S  DEFENCE," 

Of  which  he  makes  mention  in  his  speech  of  December  5,   1812, 
(taken  from  the  Freeman's  Journal,  Tuesday,  October  27,  1812): — 

"  TO   THE   EDITOR,  ETC. 

"  Sir — The  manner  in  which  you  have  introduced  in  your  paper 
the  name  of  John  Lalor,  of  Cranagh,  Esq.,  is  calculated  to  do  him 
the  greatest  injury  in  the  public  mind.  Mr.  Lalor's  friends  are  con- 
vinced, that  when  the  motives  and  reasons  which  governed  his 
conduct  are  dispassionately  considered,  his  integrity  and  his  honour 
will  remain,  as  they  have  hitherto  done,  unimpeached  and  unim- 
peachable. 

"  He  is,  he  confesses  it,  tremblingly  alive  to  the  voice  of  his 
countrymen.  The  object — the  only  object  of  his  public  life  has  been 
the  promotion,  ns  far  as  humble  means,  and  more  humble  abilities. 


APPENDIX.  549 

would  allow,  of  the  liberties  and  happiness  of  Irishmen.  He  did  not, 
nor  could  he  seek  for  himself  place  or  pension,  profit  or  emolument ; 
and  the  honours  which  a  minister  can  bestow  have  always  been  a 
subject  for  his  contempt.  With  these  sentiments,  and  with  no  other 
guide  for  his  public  conduct  than  zeal  and  honesty,  he  was  so  happy 
as  to  enjoy  the  esteem  and  the  confidence  of  his  oppressed  country- 
men. May  he  not,  then,  venture  to  ask,  whether  it  is  probable  that 
a  man  who  has  devricd  all  his  exertions  in  public  life  to  the  disin- 
terested service  of  'lis  countrymen,  should  voluntarily  adopt  any  line  of 
conduct  which  he  deemed  inconsistent  with  their  interests  ?  Surely 
it  is  highly  improbable  that  he  should  desert  his  couatry's  cause, 
which  has  ever  been  his  pride  ;  and  he  trusts,  that  when  the  reasons 
are  considered  upon  which  he  has,  on  the  present  election,  given  his 
support  to  Mr.  Bagwell,  his  conduct  will  not  rest  upon  mere  proba- 
bility, but  that  every  unbiassed  man  will  admit,  that  Mr.  Lai  or  has 
acted  with  the  purest  views,  and  from  the  best  motives ;  nay,  that 
under  all  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  it  was  impossible  he  should 
act  otherwise  than  as  he  has  done. 

"  Yes  ;  it  was  impossible  that  Mr.  Lalor  should  have  declined  to 
support  Mr.  Bagwell  at  this  election,  because  he  had  promised  that 
vsupport  more  than  one  year  and  a  half  ago.  Gentlemen  of  Ireland, 
Irish  Catholic  gentlemen,  his  word  was  pledged.  Is  there  a  tie  more 
binding? — an  obligation  more  sacred?  How  often  have  you 
expressed  your  indignation  at  the  foul  calumny  flung  upon  you  by 
your  enemies — a  calumny  put  upon  record  in  our  qualification  on 
Oaths,  that  you  believed  it  was  lawful  *  to  break  faith  with  heretics  ?' 
Xo  ;  the  faith  and  honour  of  an  Irish  gentleman  do  not  depend  on 
the  heresy,  either  religious  or  political,  or  the  object  to  whom  they 
are  pledged  ;  and  Mr.  Lalor,  with  perfect  confidence,  relies  on  this 
justification — that  his  word  was  pledged. 

"  Let  it  be  distinctly  understood,  that  Mr.  Lalor  is  not  solicitous  to 
obtain  or  preserve  the  esteem  of  any  man,  who  thinks  that  it  is  per- 
mitted to  a  gentleman  to  violate  his  promise.  He  trust  that  there  is 
not  a  man  in  Ireland  of  that  opinion — he  knows  not  such  ;  if  any  so 
base  there  be,  this  appeal  on  behalf  of  Mr.  Lalor  is  not  addressed 
to  him. 

"  Mr.  Lalor  made  this  promise  fn  the  presence  of  a  gentleman  of 
the  first  character  for  integrity  and  honour,  George  Lidwell,  Esq. 
Mr.  Lidwell  is  one  of  the  most  active  of  the  supporters  of  Mr.  Prittie, 


550  APPENDIX. 

but  he  is  appealed_to  for  the  fact  with  the  same  confidence  as  if  he 
had  been  the  friend  of  Mr.  BagAvell. 

"  Having  thus  established  the  fact  of  a  previous  promise,  and 
knowing  that  the  obligation  of  such  a  promise  is  not  doubtful,  the 
justification  of  JVIr.  Lalor  may  well  be  rested  here  ;  but  there  exits 
an  anxiety,  which  cannot  be  considered  as  unbecoming,  to  make  his 
vindication  complete,  and  to  replace  him  in  ihat  situation  which  he 
before  occupied  in  public  estimation. 

"  For  this  purpose,  it  would  be  desirable,  upon  his  part,  to  state, 
at  large,  the  motives  which  induced  him  to  make  his  promise  ;  and 
if  the  detail  be  not  deemed  tedious,  it  will,  perhaps,  appear  perfectly 
satisfactory.  The  temper  of  the  times  has,  indeed,  changed  within 
the  last  eighteen  months ;  and  the  animosity  with  which  the  Catiiolics 
now  view  all  persons  connected  with  recent  administration,  has 
excited  a  spirit  which  disqualifies  from  judging  of  the  efiect  of  his 
motives  at  that  period.  Still  it  is  expected  that  they  will  appear 
sufficiently  powerful  to  palliate  and  to  excuse,  if  not  entirely  to  justify 
the  promise. 

"  It  was  prior,  too,  to  the  period  when  Lord  Yarmouth  and  his 
household  were  preferred  to  the  Catholics.  It  was  at  a  time  when 
the  Catholics  might  reasonably  have  looked  forward  to  an  adminis- 
tration favourable  to  Ireland ;  when  it  was  supposed  that  the  day 
was  near,  in  which  the  firmest  friends  of  the  minister  might  also  be 
amongst  the  best  friends  of  the  Irish.  It  was  at  a  time  when  the  most 
zealous  of  the  Catholics  were  quite  content  to  obtain  the  support  of 
the  members  of  parliament  to  their  particular  question ;  and  many 
of  them  were  extremely  desirous  not  to  allow  the.  measure  of 
Catholic  Emancipation  to  be  to  the  politics  of  the  opposition  people, 
as  the  natural  result  of  persecution  and  of  hope,  doubly  disappointed  ; 
but  surely  it  would  be  most  unfair  to  judge  of  the  propriety  of  Mr. 
Lalor's  promise  upon  grounds  that  did  not  exist  when  that  promise 
was  given,  and  with  sentiments,  the  causes  of  which  had  not  then 
ax'isen. 

"  It  was  at  such  a  period  as  has  been  described,  that  Mr.  Lalor 
promised  his  support  to  Mr.  Bagwell ;  nor  were  there  wanting 
abundant  motives  to  require  tha^  promised  friendship,  of  which  Mr. 
Lalor  was  and  is  proud Jiad  long  subsisted  in  private  life  between 
him  and  Mr.  Bagwell.  From  the  latter,  Mr.  Lalor  had  long  expe- 
rienced those  courtesies  and  kindnesses  which  a  man  in  Mr.  Bagwell's 


APPENDIX.  551 

sphere  of  life  had  an  opportunity  of  bestowing  on  any  gentleman  who 
belonged  to  the  excluded  class  of  the  Irish  community,  but  of  which 
Mr.  Lalor  would  not  have  condescended  to  accept,  if  they  had  not 
been  tendered  by  the  hand  of  friendship,  and  been  compensated  for 
by  the  reciprocal  good  offices  within  his  power.  From  the  year  1793> 
at  which  period  Mr.  Bagwell  voted  in  favour  of  the  Catholic  bill, 
which  enabled  Mr.  Lalor  to  enjoy  the  elective  franchise,  Mr.  Lalor 
has  availed  himself  of  that  privilege  in  the  support  of  his  friend,  and 
thus  has  the  friendship  of  many  years'  standing  been  cemented  by 
those  acts  which,  to  each,  evinced  the  kindly  disposition  of  the  other 
towards  him  ;  but  there  was  a  period  in  the  melancholy  history  of 
this  country  when  Mr.  Lalor  had  occasion  for  all  the  influence 
possessed  by  Mr.  Bagwell,  to  secure  him  from  a  prison  and  from 
banishment — perhaps  from  death — perhaps  from  much  worse — from 
ignominious  torture.  IVL'.  Lalor  feels  no  shame  in  making  the  avowal , 
but  be  would  be  ashamed,  indeed,  if  he  could  forget  the  services  he 
then  received. 

"  It  was  in  that  year  of  horrors,  1798;  be  was  a  Catholic,  possessed 
of  an  independent  fortune  in  the  county  of  Tipperary — both  crimes, 
in  the  summer  of  1796,  of  no  small  magnitude;  but  further,  he  had 
always  avowed  and  maintained  his  attachment  to  the  purest  principles 
of  the  British  constitution,  and  dared  to  speak  of  liberty,  as  he  felt, 
with  enthusiasm  ;  nay  more,  he  had  been,  it  was  well  known,  an 
United  Irishman — that  is,  a  member  of  the  open  society  of  United 
Irishmen  that  met  in  Back-lane,  having  for  their  only  objects,  as  he 
was  and  is  convinced,  *  parliamentary  reform  and  Catholic  emancipa- 
tion'— that  society,  of  which  my  Lord  Castlereagh,  'the  then  Hon. 
Robert  Stuart,'  was  a  member,  and  therein  must  have  pledged  himself 
solemnly  to  both  those  measures. 

"  For  some  time  before  1798*  Mr.  Lalor  had  taken  no  part  in 
politics  :  he  condemned  and  regretted  the  violence  of  all  parties.  He 
was  olFered  the  command  of  a  corps  of  yeomanry,  but  he  felt  it  a  duty 
he  owed  to  his  country  to  refuse.  Such,  liven,  was  his  situation  in 
that  year.  He  was  a  Catholic,  wealthy  enough  to  tempt  the  avarice 
of  the  man  who  ordered  Mr.  Burke  to  pay  him  £1,000  for  alleged 
political  opinions  :  he  was  a  friend  to  liberty,  had  been  an  United 
Irishman,  and  had  refused  to  accept  the  command  of  a  j'eomanry 
corps. 

"  Recollect,  too,  what  the  state  of  the  county  Tipperary  then  was. 
No  more   need  be  said  than  that   Sir  Thomas  J.  Fitzgerald  ruled 


562  APPENDIX. 

paramount.  He  is  dead — unfortunately  dead.  He  has  escaped  the 
vengeance  of  his  country,  and  one  is  constrained  by  that  consideration 
from  depicting  his  reign  of  terror  in  all  its  horrid  colours.  But  who 
can  say  that  genuine  fidelity  to  the  throne  and  constitution — that 
perfect  innocence  of  all  traitorous  signs  or  intentions — that  detestation 
for  revolutionary  doctrines,  so  common  and  so  strong  in  the  minds  of 
the  best  friends  of  real  liberty ;  that  all  those  combined — and  Mr.  Lalor 
trusts  he  combined  them  all — could  afford  any  protection  at  that  time 
in  the  county  Tipperary  ?  Who  is  it  forgets  that  Mr.  Wright  was 
cruelly  flogged  in  the  streets  of  Clonmel  by  Sir  Thomas,  for  no  other 
reason  than  that  he  (Sir  Thomas)  did  not  understand  French  ?  Who 
has  not  heard  of  the  torture  inflicted  by  vSir  Thomas  upon  Mr.  Doyle, 
of  Carrick-on-Suir,  admitted  to  have  been  inflicted  either  through 
mistake  or  without  cause — he  could  not  tell  which  ? 

"  It  is  unnecessary  to  go  further,  and  it  would  be  tedious  to 
enumerate  instances.  What  availed  his  innocence  to  Magrath,  of 
Clogheen,  whom  Sir  Thomas,  during  his  flogging,  scarified  in  the 
breast  with  his  penknife  ?  Of  what  avail  was  his  integrity  to  the 
respectable  Mr.  Fox,  when  lacerated  to  death  at  the  triangle  by  Sir 
Thomas  ?  The  process  was  simple ;  it  required  neither  trial  nor 
accusation ;  nay,  it  was  not  necessary  even  to  be  suspected ;  mistake — " 
caprice — anything — nothing — brought  the  victims  to  the  torture ;  still 
more,  acquittal  was  useless. 

"  For  instance,  a  sessions  was  held  at  Cashel  under  the  Insurrection 
Act ;  the  magistrates,  to  the  number  of  more  than  twelve,  were  all 
yeomen,  ready  enough  to  convict ;  three  persons  were  brought  forward 
for  trial ;  there  was  not  a  shadow  of  evidence  against  them ;  they 
were  acquitted  and  discharged.  A  day  or  two  afterwards.  Sir  T.  J. 
Fitzgerald  arrived;  he  inquired  for  those  prisoners — '  prisoners  !  why, 
they  have  been  acquitted  and  discharged.'  '  Have  they  so  ?'  said  Sir 
Thomas,  '  then  I  shall  have  them  back  and  flog  them.' 

"  He  turned  round  to  Mr.  Butler,  of  BallycarroU,  and  Mr.  Smith- 
wick,  two  gentlemen  of  respectability  and  fortune,  and  ordered  them 
to  bring  iiim  the  acquitted  persons.  They  declared  their  inability  to 
do  so,  as  they  were  ignorant  where  they  were  gone.  '  Perhaps  so,' 
said  Sir  Thomas,  '  but  if  you  do  not  bring  them  to  me  directly,  I  will 
flog  you  both  instead  of  them,  by  God.' 

"  They,  gentlemen,  were  aware  of  their  danger ;  they  pursued  the 
poor  men,  who  had  returned  home  in  the  gladness  of  an  acquittal ; 
they  brought  them  back  to  Sir  Thomas,  who  had  them  instantly  tied 


APPENDIX.  553 

up  and  cruelly  flogged  1  Certainly,  it  would  have  left  a  strong  im- 
pression on  Mr.  Lalor's  mind,  if  Lord  Llandaff  had  then,  as  he  might 
have  done,  interfered  with  Sir  Thomas  (whom  he  had  appointed 
sheriff)  for  his  three  poor  tenants,  who  were  thus  first  acquitted,  and 
then  flogged. 

"  The  fate  of  Mr.  Lalor  was  also  determined  upon.  The  in- 
discretion of  Sir  Thomas  alone  procured  his  safety.  Sir  Thomas 
boasted  publicly  in  Clonmel,  that  within  three  days  he  would  have 
a  papist  of  large  fortune,  a  magistrate  and  a  deputy-governor  of 
the  county,  either  flogged,  or  in  jail,  or  hanged.  Sir  Thomas's 
threats  were  then  never  in  vain. 

"  Mr.  Lalor,  on  being  informed  of  this  threat,  applied  to  the 
Hon.  Francis  Hutchinson  to  accompany  him  to  Sir  Thomas,  and 
he  acknowledges  with  gratitude  the  ready  compliance  his  request 
met  with.  They  repaired  to  Clogheen,  where  Sir  Thomas  was 
busily  employed  flogging,  guarded  by  the  Hessians.  Mr.  Hutchin- 
son told  him  that  Mr.  Lalor  desired  to  know,  whether  there  waa 
any  charge  against  him,  as  if  so,  he  waa  ready  to  meet  it.  Sir 
Thomas  could  not  imagine  any  ;   he  declared  there  was  none. 

"  After  this  declaration,  and  from  Mr.  Lalor's  rank  in  society, 
some  precaution  was  necessary ;  accordingly,  a  representation  waa 
made  to  government  that  Mr.  Lalor  was  a  traitor,  and  a  sanction  for 
his  arrest  was  obtained.  Mr.  Lalor  owes  it  to  Mr.  Bagwell  that  he 
is  alive  and  untortured. 

"  Mr.  Lalor  was  then  a  private  in  Lord  Llandaflfs  corps  of  yeoman 
cavalry ;  from  him  he  could  expect  no  protection,  after  seeing  Mr. 
Denis  O^Meagher,  the  very  gentleman  who  proposed  Mr.  Prittie  at 
the  present  election,  and  his  aged  father,  and  his  aged  uncle,  and 
Mr.  Smith  wick,  although  he,  too,  was  near  eighty  years  of  age,  and 
other  gentlemen  of  fortune  and  respectability,  dragged  to  jail  ; 
amongst  them  were  four  yeomen  of  Lord  Llandaff 's  corps,  including 
Mr.  Denis  O'Meagher  himself.  They  obtained  their  discharge  by 
the  exertions  of  the  Hon.  Francis  Hutchinson.  Had  he  not  exerted 
himself,  it  was  quite  clear  that  neither  their  innocence  nor  their 
connection  with  Lord  Llandaff  would  have  saved  them.  Nay,  the 
present  Lord  Llandaff  attended  the  committee,  at  which  Sir  Thomas 
and  Colonel  Deering  presided,  and  which  ordered  those  arrests. 

"  Fortunately  for  Mr.  Lalor,  he  did  not  want  the  protection 
of  Lord  Llandaff,  for  the  threats  of  Sir  Thomas  at  Clonmel  were 
conveyed  to  Mr.  Bagwell ;  he  perceived  at  once  that  they  applied  to 


554  APPENDIX. 

Mr.  Lalor ;  he  knew  that  one  moment  was  not  to  be  lost ;  he  re- 
paired to  the  Castle,  and  there  procured  a  positive  order  to  Sir 
Thomas  not  to  arrest  or  meddle  with  Mr.  Lalor.  But  for  this  speedy 
interference  Mr.  Lalor's  fate  was  certain. 

"  "Will  any  person  tell  you,  sir,  that  this  was  an  obligation  which 
ought  to  be  forgotten  ?  Was  there  an  Irish  soul  so  dead  to  those 
sentiments  of  which  we  are  proud,  as  to  be  insensible  to  the  friend- 
ship which,  unsought,  protected  his  friend  from  torture — death — 
disgrace? 

**  Mr.  Lalor  cannot  forget,  too,  that  whilst  the  Llandaff  family 
protected  the  sheriiF  of  their  appointment,  Sir  Thomas  Judkin  Fitz- 
gerald, Mr.  Bagwell  used  every  effort  to  leave  him  to  justice.  It 
is  a  fact,  now  part  of  Irish  history,  that  whilst  the  first  Indemnity 
Bill  was  sufficient  to  cover  all  the  irregular  acts  of  loyalty  per- 
petrated in  other  parts  of  Ireland,  it  was  by  no  means  sufficient  to 
protect  the  loyalists  of  Tipperary.  A  second  bill  was  accordingly 
prepared  by  the  present  Lord  Norbury,  then  Attorney- General. 
It  was  introduced  into  the  House  of  Commons,  by  the  present  Lord 
Llandaff,  then  Lord  Mathew,  in  a  speech  which  is  believed  to  be  the 
only  one  he  ever  made  in  that  house.  It  was  most  violently  and 
decidedly  opposed  by  Mr.  Bagwell,  as  well  as  by  the  Hutchinsons. 
The  *  generous  nature  of  my  Lord  Castlereagh,'  who  declared  that 
the  administration  of  Ireland  never  sanctioned  torture — the  '  gene- 
rous nature  of  my  Lord  Castlereagh,'  induced  him  to  bear  down  Mr. 
Bagwell's  honest  opposition,  with  all  the  regular  forces  of  the  govern- 
ment, and  the  act  passed,  commonly  called  '  Fitzgerald's  Bill,'  and 
remains  an  eternal  monument  of  shame  to  our  legislative  system. 

"  This  subject  is,  perhaps,  dwelt  on  too  long,  but  the  recollection 
of  those  scenes  was  forcibly  brought  on  Mr.  Lalor's  mind,  on  the  7th 
of  October,  instant,  at  Thurles,  by  Captain  Gaisson.  "When  Mr. 
Bagwell  applied  to  that  gentleman  for  his  interest  at  the  present 
election — '  It  is  true,'  said  Captain  Gaisson,  '  that  you  ought  to 
expect  my  interest,  but  for  one  circumstance  ;  you  opposed  Fitz- 
gerald's Indemnity  Bill,  without  which  I  should  have  been  ruined  ; 
we  owe  that  bill  to  Lord  Llandaff,  and  his  family  shall,  therefore, 
have  my  interest ! !  !* 

"  There  are  a  few  facts  more  that  are  deemed  important,  towards 
forming  a  just  estimate  of  Lalor's  conduct.  He  was  well  aware, 
that  in  private  or  public  life,  Mr.  Bagwell  had  never  expressed  any 
sentiments  of  bigotry.     In  the  conversation  which  he  had  with  Mr. 


APPENDIX.  555 

Bagwell,  shortly  before  he  promised  his  interest  at  the  then  next 
election,  Mr.  Bagwell,  expressed  himself  in  terms  so  favourable  to  the 
Catholic  claims,  that  Mr.  Lalor understood  he  intended  to  give  them 
his  support.  So  distinctly  was  this  idea  infixed  on  his  mind,  that  he 
always  conceived  it  as  an  admittedly  implied  condition  of  his  promise ; 
and  he  always  spoke  of  that  promise,  as  founded  on  the  condition  of 
Mr.  Bagwell's  future  support  of  the  Catholic  cause  in  parliament. 

"  This  construction,  which  Mr.  Lalor  always  did  and  does  contend 
for  was  the  true  construction  of  his  promise,  having  been  conveyed 
to  Mr.  Bagwell,  he  alleged  that  the  promise  was  absolute,  and 
unqualified,  and  declared  that  he  must  insist  on  its  performance  as 
such.  Shortly  before  the  last  spring  assizes,  Mr.  Lalor  was  waited 
on  at  the  desire  of  Mr.  Bagwell,  by  Colonel  Pureloy,  who  informed 
him  of  Mr.  Bagwell's  determination,  and  that  Mr.  Bagwell  would 
expect  to  meet  Mr.  Lalor  at  the  ensuing  assizes,  and  would  require 
of  him  an  explicit  avowal,  that  the  promise  he  had  given  was  without 
any  condition.  Mr.  Lalor's  answer  was  '  that  Mr.  Bagwell  should 
never  obtain  from  him  any  such  avowal ;  and  that  there  was  no  per- 
sonal risk  which  he  would  not  cheerfully  run  sooner  than  extend  that 
promise  to  any  one  in  particular — that  in  giving  it  in  the  way  he 
had  done,  he  followed  far  enough  the  impulse  of  gratitude  and  private 
friendship,  and  that  he  woidd  certainly  not  support  Mr.  Bagwell 
upon  any  other  terms.' 

"  Mr.  Lalor  felt  it  incumbent  on  him  in  consequence  of  this  con- 
versation, to  absent  himself  from  the  grand  jury,  on  which  he  had 
been  as  usual,  called  ;  but  he  an*ived  in  Clonmel  early  the  second 
day  of  the  assizes,  and  having  met  Mr.  Lidwell,  he  informed  him  of 
the  attention  he  had  received  from  Mr.  Bagwell,  and  of  his  convic- 
tion, that  a  challenge  must  ensue ;  he  asked  Mr.  Lidwell  to  be  his 
friend,  but  that  gentleman  declined  from  motives  of  delicacy  which 
he  stated ;  and  Mr.  Lalor  resorted  to  Captain  Power  of  Ballydine, 
who  was  so  good  as  to  consent  to  be  his  friend. 

"  Thus  was  Mr.  Lalor  placed  in  the  disagreeable  situation  of 
receiving  a  message  from  an  old  friend  and  benefactor  (for  he  must 
call  him  so),  or  of  giving  his  interest  to  an  avowed  opponent  of  the 
Catholic  claims.  The  oft-tried  spirit  of  Mr.  Bagwell  seemed  to 
leave  him  no  alternative  but  to  risk  his  life,  or  desei-t  his  cause ;  he 
preferred  the  former,  and  it  is  a  choice  he  is  always  ready  to  make. 
It  is  true,  that  he  was  not  called  on  to  make  any  sacrifice — that  his 
friend   Mr.   BagvvoU    pledged    himself  unequivocally   in  private,   to 


556  APPENDIX. 

support  the  Catholic  cause,  before  he  asked  the  fulfilment  of  Mr. 
Lalor's  promise,  and  undertook  to  repeat  that  pledge  in  public. 

"  Mr.  Lalor  assuredly  is  not  to  blame,  if  Mr.  Bagwell  changed  his 
view  of  the  promise  made  to  him  by  Mr.  Lalor,  and  concurred  in  the 
construction  put  on  that  promise  by  Mr.  Lalor  himself ;  but  after 
Mr.  Bagwell  had  done  so,  how,  in  the  nature  of  things,  can  it  be 
imagined,  that  Mr.  Lalor  could  disengage  himself  from  that  promise, 
or  violate  it  in  any  particular  ? 

**  It  comes  now  to  be  observed,  that  it  is  obvious,  that  if  Mr. 
Bagwell  be  not  returned  for  the  county  of  Tipperary,  the  Catholic 
cause  sustains  no  injury  from  Mr.  Lalor;  but  if  he  be,  then  it  will 
be  owing  to  Mr.  Lalor,  that  the  Catholic  question  obtains  two  addi- 
tional supporters,  in  the  persons  of  Mr.  Bagwell,  member  for  the 
county,  and  his  son,  member  for  the  borough  of  Clonmel.  Besides, 
it  is  nearly  certain,  that  another  of  Mr.  Bagwell's  connection  will  be 
returned  for  a  neighbouring  borough ;  in  which  case  a  third  vote  in 
parliament  for  the  Catholics  is  ascertained. 

.  "  And  shall  Air.  Lalor  be  vilified  as  a  traitor  to  his  cause  and 
country,  when  his  friends  are  thus  able,  with  truth,  to  declare,  that 
he  has  influenced  three  votes  in  parliament  in  favour  of  that  cause ; 
nay,  should  he  have  influenced  only  two  votes,  will  any  Catholic 
have  a  right  to  reproach  him,  unless  he  shall  have  influenced 
at  least  one  vote  ?  And  where  is  the  Catholic,  beside  Mr.  Lalor,  who 
can  boast  of  having  converted  one  opponent  into  a  friend  ? 

*'  It  remains  only  to  consider  whether  Mr.  Lalor  was  restrained 
by  the  resolution  of  the  Catholics  of  the  county  of  Tipperary,  from 
voting  for  Mr.  Bagwell.  That  resolution  was  the  same  in  principle, 
if  not  precisely  in  words,  with  the  resolution  of  the  aggregate  meeting, 
in  Dublin,  on  the  18tli  of  June  last.  Both  resolutions  were  framed 
by  the  same  gentleman,  and  with  the  same  object. 

"  When  the  resolution  of  the  18th  of  June  was  about  to  be  put  by 
Lord  Fingal,  he  observed  that  he  was  under  a  promise  already  made 
to  give  his  interest  to  Lord  Bective,  a  ministerial  candidate,  for  the 
county  of  Meath,  and  that  he  could  not  concur  in  the  resolution  if  it 
was  intended  by  it  to  enforce  the  violation  of  any  promise  pre- 
viously given.  His  lordship  was  immediately  assured  that  the 
resolution  could  never,  be  construed  to  require  a  violation  of  any 
previous  engagement ;  that  it  was  not  intended  as  a  trap  for  Catholic 
fidelity,  but  was,  in  its  operation,  entirely  prospective  ;  with  this 
explanation   Lord  Fingal  was   perfectly  satisfied  ;   he  joined  in   the 


APPENDIX.  557 

resolution — authenticated  it  by  his  signature  as  chairman,  and  has, 
nevertheless,  continued  his  support,  as  he  was  bound  to  do,  to  the 
ministerial  candidate  to  whom  he  was  previously  pledged. 

'*  Such  has  been  precisely  the  course  adopted  by  Mr.  Lalor.  The 
explanation  given  to  Lord  Fingal,  and  the  line  of  conduct  pursued 
by  that  exalted  and  revered  nobleman,  could  not  lead  to  disgrace  or 
dishonour.  This  Mr.  Lalor  felt  and  feels,  and  he  i*ests  satisfied  that 
in  imitating,  at  an  humble  distance,  that  noble  lord,  he  will  not  be 
considered  to  have  forfeited  any  of  his  claims  upon  the  esteem  of  Ms 
countrymen. 

"  And  what,  after  all,  is  his  crime  ?  Why,  to  have  given  his 
interest,  in  consequence  of  a  previous  promise,  to  an  old  friend  and 
benefactor — to  a  man  who  has  already  supported  Catholic  rights,  and 
pledges  himself  and  his  son  to  support  them  for  the  residue  of  their 
lives — to  a  man  who  commenced  his  career  in  society  by  a  donation 
to  the  Catholics  of  Clonmel  at  sixpence  by  the  year — of  their  chapel 
ground  worth  £100  per  annum — to  a  man  who  voted  against  the  foul 
and  abominable  measure  of  an  union — to  consent  to  which,  many  a 
disgusted  Catholic  was  seduced  by  Bagwell's  opponent — in  short, 
to  a  man  who  has  repeatedly  obtained  the  support  of  the  best  friends 
of  the  Catholics — the  illustrious  family  of  the  Hutchinsons. 

"  If,  by  fidelity  to  his  promise — if,  by  resisting  a  junction  of 
powerful  families  that  would  fain  convert  the  county  of  Tipperary 
in  a  close  borough,  if  by  voting  for  his  friend  of  many  years  and  the 
man  who  rescued  him  from  the  horrors  of  1798 — if  to  have  imitated 
in  one  instance  the  conduct  of  the  Earl  of  Fingal,  and  in  another 
that  of  the  Hutchinsons — if,  by  procuring  two  certainly,  and  pro- 
bably three  votes  in  the  next  Parliament — ^if,  by  all  these  means,  he 
had  forfeited  the  confidence  of  Irishmen,  he  must  bow  in  resignation 
to  their  decision,  but  he  cannot  avoid  complaining  of  it  as  unmerited 
and  severe. 

"  This  statement  is  addressed  to  you,  sir,  under  the  sanction  and  by 
the  authority  of  Mr.  Lalor,  for  the  facts  and  the  observations  con- 
tained in  it,  he  considers  himself,  and  will  always  hold  himself, 
personally  responsible  ;  but  he  wishes  it  to  be  added,  that  he  hopes 
his  countrymen  will  not  deem  the  less  favourably  of  him  for  his  deep 
anxiety  to  preserve,  as  well  as  to  merit,  their  confidence. 

"  I  am,  sir,  &c., 

;  "  A    SCBSCRIBER. 


558  APPENDIX. 

'<  In  consequence  of  some  assertions  contained  in  the  paper 
Mr.  Lalor  feels  it  a  duty  he  owes  to  himself,  to  state  these  two 
facts : — 

"  1st.  That  he  offered  his  second  voices,  which  were  disengaged, 
to  General  Mathew,  if  he  formed  no  junction  with  any  other 
candidate,  but  left  the  county  to  its  free  choice  of  both  members. 

"  2ndly.  That  Mr.  Lalor  conceived  the  manner  of  the  General  on 
the  hustings,  on  the  first  day  of  election,  to  have  been  offensive  ;  and 
he,  therefore,  sent  a  message  to  the  General,  who,  however,  was 
pleased  to  obviate  any  unpleasant  feelings  on  the  subject,  by  consent- 
ing to  declare  to  Mr.  Lalor,  publicly,  that  he  did  not  intend  any 
offence,  but  on  the  contrary,  felt  every  respect  for  him.  This  decla- 
ration the  General  accordingly  made." 

The  following  letter  was  written  by  Mr.  O'Connell,  when  a  law 
student  in  London,  in  1795,  being  then  but  twenty  years  of  age> 
and  addressed  to  Maurice  O'Connell,  Esq.,  Darrynane  : — 


'•  Chiswick,  near  London,  December  10,  1796. 
"My  Dear  Uncle, 

"  I  delayed  answering  your  letter  of  the  17th  ult.  until  I  should  have  it  in 
my  power  to  inform  you  that  I  had  changed  my  place  of  residence,  in  conformity 
to  your  desire. 

"  On  calculating  the  expenses  of  retiring  to  a  cheaper  spot,  and  of  returning  to 
keep  ray  term  in  January,  I  found  it  would  not  answer  ;  so  I  have  dropped  the 
scheme.  I  am  now  only  four  miles  from  town,  yet  perfectly  retired.  I  pay 
the  same  price  for  board  and  lodging  as  I  shoiild  in  London  ;  but  I  enjoy  many 
advantages  here,  besides  air  and  retirement.  The  society  in  the  house  is  mixed, 
I  mean,  composed  of  men  and  women,  all  of  whom  are  people  of  rank  and 
knowledge  of  the  world ;  so  that  their  conversation  and  manners  are  perfectly 
well  adapted  to  rub  off  the  rust  of  scholastic  education  ;  nor  is  there  any  danger 
of  riot  or  dissipation,  as  they  are  ail  advanced  in  life — another  student  of  law 
and  I  being  the  only  young  persons  in  the  house.  This  young  man  is  my  most 
intimate  acquaintance,  and  the  only  friend  I  have  found  amongst  my  acquain- 
tance. His  name  is  Bennett.*  He  is  an  Lrish  young  man  of  good  family  con- 
nections and  fortune.  He  is  prudent,  and  strictly  economical.  He  has  good 
sense,  ability,  and  application.  I  knew  him  before  my  journey  to  Ireland.  It 
was  before  that  period  our  friendship  commenced ;  so  that,  on  the  whole,  I 
spend  my  time  here  not  only  very  pleasantly,  but,  I  hope,  very  usefully. 

' '  The  only  law  books  which  I  have  bought  as  yet  are  the  works  of  Espinisse, 
on  the  trials  of  Nisi  Prius.     They  cost  me  £1  lOs.,  and  contain  more  informa- 

•  The  late  Richard  Newton  Bennett,  for  a  time  Chief  JusUce  of  one  of  the  West  India  Islands. 


APPENDIX.  559 

tion  on  the  practical  part  of  the  law  than  any  other  work  I  have  ever  met. 
When  in  DubUn,  I  reflected  that  carrying  any  more  books  than  were  absolutely 
necessary,  would  be  incurring  expense ;  so  I  deferred  buying  a  complete  set  of 
'  reports  until  my  return  thither. 

"  I  have  now  two  objects  to  pursue — the  one,  the  attainment  of  knowledge  ; 
the  other,  the  acquisition  of  all  those  qualities  which  constitute  the  polite  gen- 
tleman.  I  am  convinced  that  the  former,  besides  the  immediate  pleasure  which 
it  yields,  is  calcxilated  to  raise  me  to  honours,  rank,  and  fortune ;  and  I  know 
that  the  latter  serves  as  a  general  passport  or  first  recommendation ;  and  as  for 
the  motives  of  ambition  which  you  suggest,  I  assure  you  that  no  man  can  pos- 
sess more  of  it  than  I  do.  I  have,  indeed,  a  glowing,  and — if  I  may  use  the 
expression — an  enthusiastic  ambition,  which  converts  every  toil  into  a  pleasure, 
and  every  study  into  an  amusement. 

•'Though  nature  may  have  given  me  subordinate  talents,  I  never  will  be 
satisfied  with  a  subordinate  situation  in  my  profession.  No  man  is  able,  I  am 
aware,  to  supply  the  total  deficiency  of  abilities,  but  every  body  is  capable  of 
improving  and  enlarging  a  stock,  however  small,  and  in  its  beginning,  con- 
temptible. It  is  this  reflection  that  affords  me  most  consolation.  K I  do  not 
rise  at  the  bar,  I  will  not  have  to  meet  the  reproaches  of  my  own  conscience. 
It  is  not  because  I  assert  these  things  now,  that  I  should  conceive  myself 
entitled  to  call  on  you  to  believe  them.  I  refer  that  conviction  which  I  wish  to 
inspire  to  your  experience.  I  hope,  nay,  I  flatter  myself,  that  when  we  meet 
again,  the  success  of  my  efforts  to  correct  those  bad  habits  which  you  pointed 
out  to  me  wiU  be  apparent.  Indeed,  as  for  my  knowledge  in  the  professional 
line,  that  cannot  be  discovered  for  some  years  to  come  ;  but  I  have  time  in  the 
interim  to  prepare  myself  to  appear  with  greater  eclat  on  the  grand  theatre  Of 
the  world. 

"  You  have  heard  of  the  capture  of  Manheim.  The  Austrians  continue  to 
advance  rapidly  on  the  French  side  of  the  Rhine.  They  are  said  to  be  marching 
towards  Lusembourg.  In  the  meantime,  the  French  are  evacuating  Holland. 
Whether  this  event  will  be  favourable  to  the  interest  of  the  Stadtholder,  is  yet 
uncertain.  The  ministry,  who  are  become  unpopular,  owing  in  particular  to  the 
two  bUls,  of  which  you  must  have  heard,  and  in  general  to  the  ill  success  of  the 
war,  already  tottered  in  their  seats ;  but  the  brilliant  victories  of  the  Austrians 
have  secured  them  at  least  for  some  time.  That  we  shall  soon  have  peace  is 
no  longer  a  question.  Every  body  believes  it,  and  the  King's  messages  to  par- 
liament confirm  the  belief. 

* '  The  General  desires  to  be  remembered  to  you.      He  and  his  lady  are  well 
I  gave  him  your  letter  on  the  day  of  its  arrival.    Present  my  duty  to  my  father 
and  mother,  and  my  love  to  my  brothers  and  sisters,  and  other  friends. 

•'  I  am,  dear  Uncle, 
"  Your  sincerely  affectionate,  grateful,  and  dutiful  nephew, 

"DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

"  My  direction  is  at  Mrs.  Rigby's,  Chiswick,  near  London." 


BOSTON  COLLEGE 


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